PRESENTED  TO  THE  LIBRARY 


OF 


PRINCETON  THEOLOGICHL  SEMINARY 


BY 


|V[fs.  Alcj^andcp  Proudfit. 

■Z7 


THE 


RESURRECTION 


JESUS    CHRIST 


HISTORICALLY  AND  LOGICALLY  VIEWED. 


Kai  b  ^dVf  Kal  iyevdjirtv  vsKpdg. 


RICHARD   W.    DICKINSON,    D.  D. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

PRESBYTERIAN  BOARD  OF  PUBLICATION, 

No.  821  Chestnut  Street. 


Entered  according  to  the  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1865,  by 

THE    TRUSTEES     OF    THE 

PRESBYTERIAN  BOARD  OF  PUBLICATION, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  for  the  Eastern  District 
of  Pennsylvania. 

STEREOTYPED  BY  WESTCOTT  &   THOMSON, 


PREFACE. 


The  following  pages  are  submitted  to  the  public  in  the 
hope  that  they  may  serve,  at  least  in  some  degree,  to  supply 
a  want,  which,  though  seldom  expressed,  is  often  felt. 
The  want,  here  assumed,  as  the  conscious  experience  of 
not  a  few  minds,  is  that  of  some  treatise  on  the  Resurrec- 
tion of  Christ,  which,  while  excluding  all  that  is  irrelevant, 
without  omitting  anything  essential  to  the  fair  discussion 
of  the  subject,  shall,  in  a  brief  and  convenient  form,  em- 
body the  facts  and  testimony  in  the  case  ;  and  which,  in 
vindicating  the  credibility  of  the  witnesses,  shall  rebut  the 
positions,  and  expose  the  sophistries  of  Infidelity. 

Such  a  work,  it  is  hoped,  will  not  merely  attract  the 
notice  of  those  who  have  no  leisure  for  investigating  the 
documentary  proofs  of  our  holy  religion,  but  will  also  fur- 
nish material  for  reflection  on  not  a  few  of  the  most  strik- 
ing incidents  of  the  Gospels,  as  well  as  on  some  of  the  most 
humiliating  features  of  our  fallen  nature. 

The  natural  tendency  of  a  discussion  of  this  nature,  and, 


4  PREFACE. 

by  God's  blessing,  the  actual  result  may  be  expected  to  be, 
to  counteract  the  suggestions  of  "an  evil  heart  of  unbe- 
lief ; "  to  aid  the  inquiries,  and  solve  the  doubts  of  those 
whose  minds  have  been  embarrassed  by  speculative  difficul- 
ties ;  and,  though  last,  not  least,  to  silence,  if  not  convince 
the  skeptic. 

R.  W.  D. 

New  York,  July  lat,  1865. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    PREDICTION. 

PAaB 

The  death  of  Christ  no  ordinary  event — He  might  have  avoided 
it — Foretold  the  manner  of  his  death,  and  the  time  of  his 
resurrection — Ability  to  foretell  the  time  of  one's  death,  not 
human — His  prediction  without  a  parallel — It  was  not  under- 
stood by  his  disciples — Reasons — His  enemies  not  ignorant 
of  Christ's  "  saying ;" — How  they  reasoned  about  it — Sought 
an  audience  with  Pilate — Precautions  against  the  last  error — 
Watch  set,  and  the  stone  sealed — A  timely  precaution — Object 
of  the  priests  and  rulers 11 

CHAPTER  11. 

THE    MISSING    BODY. 

Incidents  attending  the  dawn  of  the  third  morning — No  guards 
to  be  seen — The  body  of  Jesus  missing — Agreement  of  the 
Sanhedrim  and  the  disciples  as  to  the  fact — Official  explana- 
tion of  the  mystery — Not  even  intimated  that  Christ  was  not 
dead  when  buried — Had  he  not  been,  could  not  have  removed 
the  stone  himself,  and  been  unobserved — The  body  either  re- 
moved or  stolen — Must  have  been  done  by  either  his  enemies 
or  his  friends — His  enemies  had  no  motive  to  take  it  away — 
His  friends  could  not,  nor  had  they  a  motive :  they  were  dis- 
pirited and  terrified — Could  not  have  been  taken  without 
causing  some  noise — Improbable  that  the  guard  slept — Would 
1  *  6 


b  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

not  have  acknowledged  it  if  they  had — Priests  put  a  lie  into 
their  mouths  to  circulate — Subterfuges  of  infidelity — Parallel 
between  the  priests  and  modern  infidels — Repetition  of  false- 
hood— Its  influence — Readiness  of  the  people  to  be  imposed 
on — Illustrations — The  rulers  did  not  themselves  believe  the 
story — Took  no  measures  to  substantiate  the  priests'  charge, 
though  bound  to  do  so — The  crucifixion  without  a  parallel — 
Design  of  the  priests'  story — Exasperated  by  the  reports  of 
the  morning — AVhy  they  did  not  embrace  the  apostles'  doc- 
trine— They  had  nothing  to  hope,  every  thing  to  fear  from 
the  part  they  had  taken  in  eflfectiug  Christ's  death 22 

CHAPTER  IIL 

PRESUMPTIVE    PROOFS    OF    CHRIST'S    RESTJRRECTIOK. 

No  absurdity  in  the  supposition  that  he  had  risen — It  was  not 
impossible;  especially  if  he  was  the  God-man — It  was  not  im- 
probable that  such  a  person  would  verify  his  own  saying — In 
itself  not  more  wonderful  than  some  of  his  own  miracles — 
A  necessity  induced  for  the  verification  of  his  plighted  word 
— The  absurd  position  of  modern  infidelity — No  cause  is  pre- 
judged by  the  love  of  truth — Absence  of  all  presumptive 
proofs  fatal  to  the  argument — Apart  from  the  nature  of  his 
death,  his  resurrection  was  uncalled  for — No  question  of 
trivial  interest — The  course  of  errorists  in  their  assaults  on 
Christianity — Christ's  resurrection  implies  a  higher  purpose 
— No  necessity  for  his  rising  again  if  he  did  not  die  to  take 
away  the  sin  of  the  world — By  whom  the  fact  of  his  resur- 
rection has  been  disputed — The  disciples  had  not  the  ad- 
vantage of  presumptive  proofs — Not  strange  that  they  did  not 
understand  the  import  of  Christ's  saying — If  Christ  rose  he 
would  assuredly  convince  his  disciples  of  the  fact — Import- 
ance of  the  strongest  possible  evidence 40 


CONTENTS.  7 

CHAPTER  IV. 

POSITIVE    EVIDENCE. 

PAGB 

No  one  saw  Christ  rise — The  guard  frightened  away  by  the 
angel — The  women  no  knowledge  of  the  guard — Their  object 
in  going  to  the  sepulchre — Their  consternation — Mary  and 
Salome  frightened  by  an  angel — Joanna — Mary  Magdalene's 
early  visits — The  other  Mary  and  Salome — Joanna  and  other 
women  :  their  successive  visits — John  followed  by  Peter,  saw 
the  clothes  lying  but  no  angel — John  the  Jirst  to  believe  in  an 
unseen  Saviour — Special  message  for  Peter — Christ  appeared 
Jirst  to  Mary  Magdalene — Mary  and  Salome  the  next  wit- 
nesses— Peter  the  next  witness — His  second  visit  to  the  sep- 
ulchre was  probably  the  last  that  was  made  by  either  of  the 
disciples — "  The  two  disciples" — The  incredulity  of  the  dis- 
ciples in  general — Christ  appears  to  them  all,  save  Thomas — 
Rebukes  their  unbelief — Thomas  at  last  convinced — Next  ap- 
pearance on  the  shore  of  Tiberias — The  incidents  of  his  in- 
terview with  the  fishers — The  next  meeting  was  at  Galilee — 
His  last  appearance  was  to  the  apostles — Final  interview — 
Closing   scene — Consequent  emotions  of  the  apostles 52 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE    TESTIMONY    OF    THE    WITNESSES. 

Four  narratives  of  the  same  event — Period  at  which  they 
were  written — The  narrators  would  not  multiply  particu- 
lars— They  would  vary,  and  yet  agree — Omission  no  con- 
tradiction— Unusual  circumstances  to  be  taken  into  view 
— The  mental  agitation  of  the  disciples  must  have  been 
extreme — Naturalness  of  the  narratives — They  explain  them- 
selves— The  testimony  of  the  women  all -important — "Why 
the  angels  appeared  only  to  the  women — Their  appearance  on 
the  occasion  appropriate — No  mention  of  Mary  the  mother 


8  CONTENTS. 

PAQB 

of  Jesus — She  was  no  more  to  the  risen  Jesus  than  the  other 
women — A  fictitious  writer  would  have  differently  represented 
Mary  the  mother  of  Jesus — Not  known  whether  he  ever  ap- 
peared to  his  mother — She  is  for  the  first  time  mentioned  in 
connection  with  the  apostles — When  they  all  were  at  prayer 
—A  fact  to  be  praised  by  all  who  love  truth , 73 

CHAPTER  VI. 

CREDIBILITY    OF    THE    WITNESSES. 

They  were  competent  to  judge  whether  Christ  was  dead — Could 
not  have  been  deceived  as  to  his  death — Not  as  to  the  place 
where  his  body  was  laid — Nor  mistaken  a  phantom  for  reality 
— Not  possible  for  a  number  of  persons  to  labour  under  an 
illusion  at  the  same  time — In  this  case  eleven  witnesses  be- 
sides the  women — The  apostles  knew  what  was  indispensable 
to  the  competency  of  a  witness — They  were  neither  preju- 
diced nor  credulous — The  idea  of  Christ's  rising  probably  did 
not  occur  to  their  agitated  minds — The  natural  effects  of  de- 
spondency— In  view  of  the  evidence,  there  was  no  room  for 
doubt — They  are  again  assembled  in  "  that  upper  room" — 
Their  prayers — The  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  on  the  day  of 
Pentecost — Speaking  with  tongues — Preaching  in  the  name 
of  Jesus — Marvellous  effect  of  their  preaching — Wonderful 
change  the  apostles  have  undergone — Not  to  be  explained 
unless  Jesus  rose  from  the  dead — They  could  not  have  been 
justly  charged  with  either  arrogance  or  dogmatism 84 

CHAPTER  VII. 

CHOSEN   WITNESSES, 

No  valid  objection — Reasons  for  selecting  certain  persons — Un- 
reasonable to  suppose  that  Christ  would  have  appeared  to  his 
enemies — His  work  on  earth  was  finished — Twelve  separate 
witnesses  enough — They  must  have  "  infallible  proofs,"  and 


CONTENTS.  9 

PAGE 

act  according — The  apostles'  course — Their  testimony — Their 
miracles  —  Their  writings  —  Corresponding  effects  —  That 
Christ's  enemies  did  not  believe,  no  disparagement  to  the 
apostles'  testimony — They  knew  that  Christ  had  risen — What 
they  did — Moral  truth  cannot  be  accompanied  with  resistless 
evidence 97 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

HYPOTHESES    OF   INFIDELITY. 

That  the  apostles  were  enthusiasts — But  they  were  not  self- 
moved — Not  easily  convinced — They  acted  under  authority, 
and  taught  only  as  commanded — They  appealed  to  facts — 
They  were  not  governed  by  impulse,  or  by  fancy — 'Their  wri- 
tings as  fresh  as  ever — Origin  and  nature  of  enthusiasm — 
The  apostles  spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost — 
Enthusiasm  allies  itself  with  fanaticism — Characteristics  of 
their  history  of  Jesus — The  influence  of  their  writings  as 
contrasted  with  what  they  themselves  were — Their  modesty 
and  candour — The  case  of  Paul.  The  second  hypothesis — 
The  crucifixion-scene — No  impostor  would  have  broached  the 
story  of  the  resurrection  on  the  spot — Against  all  experience 
that  twelve  men  should  have  united  in  a  falsehood  so  soon 
after  the  tragedy  of  the  cross,  and  beneath  its  shadow — Such 
a  story  might  have  been  easily  refuted,  had  it  been  false — It 
was  adverse  to  all  the  national  sentiments  of  the  Jews — The 
story  could  not  have  originated  in  a  different  place  and  at  a 
later  period 105 

CHAPTER  IX. 

CONCLirSION. 

No  accounting  for  the  Christian  church  and  the  Christian  ordi- 
nances unless  we  admit  the  truth  of  what  Peter  said — That 


10  CONTENTS. 


PAGE 


three  thousand  were  deceived  in  a  day  would  be  a  greater 
miracle  than  that  Christ  rose  from  the  dead — The  issue  met — 
The  apostles  either  true  or  false — Their's  no  story  to  please 
The  great  task — They  could  not  have  been  ignorant  of  conse- 
quences— They  had  nothing  to  gain — If  true,  everything  to 
lose — Sketch  of  the  apostles — Something  more  than  words 
demanded — How  did  the  apostles  act? — Could  not  have  aimed 
to  deceive — Logical  consequences — Christianity  has  myste- 
ries— It  illumines  life  and  immortality — Infidelity  to  be  pitied 
—The  epitaph 115 

CHAPTER  X. 

The  relation  of  the  fact  to  Christian  doctrines — Obvious,  yet 
overlooked  or  evaded — Examples  in  illustration — Method  of 
assault  on  Christianity  changed — Object  of  skeptical  theories 
— Christian  doctrines  the  exponents  of  Scriptural  facts — 
Logical  consequences  of  rejecting  either  the  facts  or  the  teach- 
ings of  Christianity — Testimony  of  the  "witness  within" — 
No  materials  for  constructing  the  history  of  Jesus — Outline 
of  his  character — The  Divine  perfections  largely  unknown 
till  Christ  appeared — The  constitution  of  his  person — Not  to 
be  explained — No  relief  from  heavy  thoughts  but  in  the  light 
of  the  resurrection — The  Divine-human — Harmony  of  the 
sacred  writings — Declared  by  his  resurrection  to  be  "  The  Son 
of  God"  with  2)oiuer — If  not  the  Son  of  God,  there  is  no  sig- 
nificancy  in  his  death — Wrong  views  of  Christ's  death — His 
death  an  act  of  humiliation — It  assures  us  of  eternal  life — 
His  mysterious  sorrow — But  imperfect  knowledge  in  this  re- 
lation— A  great  mystery — One  thing  known — Christ  Jesus  his 
own  interpreter — The  influence  of  the  resurrection  on  the 
chosen  witnesses — The  scandal  of  the  cross — Chi-ist's  resur- 
rection the  seal  and  pledge  of  his  people's 126 


THE 

RESURRECTION  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


CHAPTEE  I. 

TSE  FMEiyiCTIOJSr. 


The  peculiarities  of  Christ's  ministry  which 
awakened  so  intense  an  interest  in  his  person,  to- 
gether with  the  varied  influences  which  were  ar- 
rayed against  his  mission,  forbid  the  supposition 
that  his  death  could  have  been  an  ordinary  event. 

It  was,  indeed,  no  new  thing  for  a  man  to  be 
crucified.  Many  a  poor  criminal  had  been,  without 
any  one  near,  save  the  stern  executioners  of  jus- 
tice ;  many  a  one  had  breathed  out  his  life  in 
agony  on  the  cross,  with  no  one  present  to  drop  a 
tear,  much  less  care  for  his  mangled  corse. 

Those  two  malefactors — the  one  on  the  right,  the 
other  on  the  left,  who  cares  for  them  ?  Who  will 
ever  mention  their  names  after  their  bodies  are 
thrown  into  ignominious  graves  ?  But  He  who  is 
suspended  between  those  malefactors,  ah,  never  be- 
fore had  the  cross  borne  a  man  who  in  all  the  public 
acts  of  his  life  had  seemed  to  multitudes  to  be 
more  than  man  ! 

11 


12  THE    RESURRECTION    OE    JESUS    CHRIST. 

It  was  not  an  event,  therefore,  to  be  either  con- 
cealed or  forgotten.  All  had  heard  of  Jesus.  His 
name  had  been  often  pronounced  with  awe,  or  won- 
der; with  sentiments  of  love,  or  of  hate.  The 
common  people  had  heard  him  gladly :  the  lame, 
the  halt,  the  blind,  the  sick,  the  leper, — ^mothers  with 
their  little  children  ;  mourners,  sorrowing  over  the 
grave  of  an  only  brother,  or  an  only  son,  all  had 
blessed  him ;  while  many  had  felt  that  they  were 
not  worthy  that  he  should  come  under  their  roof; 
and  others  had  fondly  hoped  that  it  was  he  that 
should  redeem  Israel. 

We  can  readily  imagine  that  the  mere  intelligence 
of  his  arrest  for  trial  occasioned  feelings  of  the 
most  painful  suspense  in  unnumbered  minds  through- 
out Judea.  But  that  men,  calling  themselves 
priests  and  rulers  could  so  outrage  justice  and 
humanity  as  to  put  so  good  a  man  to  an  accursed 
death,  was  enough  to  arouse  all  Jerusalem  to  the 
highest  pitch  of  public  excitation.  The  great  city 
of  the  Jews  is  pouring  forth  its  thousands  to  gather 
round  the  brow  of  that  hill;  Jjifl because  tliree  men 
are  there  to  be  crucified,  but  because  of  the  One 
between  the  two,  whom  Pilate  had  delivered  up  to 
be  crucified,  and  over  whose  head  there  is  written 
in  large  letters  :  "  This  is  he  that  was  born  king  of 
the  Jews  !" 

She  who  bare  him  is  there,  and  when  no  longer 
able  to  endure  the  sight  is  commended  by  him  to 
the  care  of  one   of  his  disciples.     Certain  women 


THE    PREDICTION.  13 

who  had  followed  him  are  there,  wringing  their 
hands  in  anguish  of  spirit.  Peter  is  there,  weep- 
ing more  bitterly  than  ever,  that  he  had  denied  his 
Lord.  Thomas  is  there,  and  gives  up  in  despair. 
Though  they  are  standing  in  the  distance,  yet  all 
the  disciples  are  there,  to  witness  the  dark  scene, — 
all  save  one  who  had  already  gone  out  to  revenge 
on  himself  his  betrayal  of  his  Master.  His  enemies, 
they  who  had  imprecated  his  blood  on  themselves 
and  their  children,  are  there;  and  they  hear  from 
his  dying  lips  that  touching  prayer  of  his  fof  their 
forgiveness.  Men  of  all  ranks,  and  sects,  and  of 
different  nations,  are  there.  The  scribe  and  the 
pharisee,  the  priest  and  the  Levite,  the  elders  and 
the  rulers,  the  civilian  and  the  soldier,  the  noble 
and  the  base,  Jew  and  Gentile,  all  are  merged  in 
one  promiscuous  throng  ;  and  deep  as  was  the  conflict 
of  emotions  in  their  minds  as  they  gazed  upon  the 
cross,  it  was  not  so  great  as  the  difference  in  their 
sentiments  respecting  Him  who  was  heard  to  ex- 
claim as  he  gave  up  the  ghost,  "It  is  finished  !"  a 
difference,  which,  though  it  may  still  be  found 
among  men,  does  not  militate  against  the  fact  that 
he  who  was  born  in  Bethlehem  was  put  to  death  on 
Calvary. 

If  the  multitude  on  witnessing  the  wondrous 
works  of  his  life,  often  exclaimed,  "  What  manner 
of  man  is  this  ?"  well  may  any  one  while  reflecting 
on  the  tragic  end  of  his  mission  inquire,  and  with 
the   deepest  solicitude,    what   manner  of  death  is 

2 


14  THE    RESURRECTION!    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 

this  ?  a  death  without  a  parallel  in  the  world's 
history,  a  death- scene,  rather,  such  as  had  never 
been  enacted. 

No  one,  however,  can  candidly  examine  the  par- 
ticulars of  his  trial  and  crucifixion,  as -furnished  by 
the  Evangelists,  without  perceiving  how  easy  it 
would  have  been  for  him  to  have  avoided  the  catas- 
trophe.* 

He  was  no  stranger  to  the  treacherous  intentions 
of  a  perfidious  disciple  ;  and  though  he  had  enemies 
he  had  also  friends  on  whose  support  he  could  have 
relied.  Had  he  returned  to  Galilee,  as  he  might 
readily  have  done,  he  would  have  been  removed 
from  all  danger  of  personal  violence  ;  or  had  he 
even  concealed  the  place  of  his  nightly  resort,  he 
might  have  baffled  the  evil  counsels  of  the  Jewish 
elders. 

But  he  remained  in  Jerusalem  in  the  midst  of 
those  who,  to  his  certain  knowledge,  were  plotting 
against  his  life.  He  retained  Judas  about  his  per- 
son, though  he  knew  that  he  was  but  waiting  an 
opportunity  to  betray  him.  He  continued  to  pass 
his  nights  where  he  knew  that  Judas  might  find 
him.  He  even  rebuked  Peter  for  attempting  his 
rescue  from  the  mob  ;  and  when  arraigned  for  trial, 
made  no  defence. 

In  short,  though  he  was  but  young,  and  seemed 
to  have  the  same  ties  which  bind  other  men  to  life ; 
though  he  was  engaged  in  a  god-like  work  and  had 

*  John  xviii. 


THE    PREDICTION.  15 

won  a  multitude  of  hearts  ;  though  he  had  betrayed 
no  morbid  sympathies,  nor  lack  of  thoughtfulness  ; 
though,  on  several  occasions  of  threatened  violence 
to  himself,  he  had  retired  from  observation,  and  had 
always  been  solicitous  only  for  the  safety  and  wel- 
fare of  others,  yet  is  it  a  fact  that  at  this  juncture 
he  voluntarily  neglected  to  avail  himself  of  any  of 
those  precautions  which  ordinary  prudence  would 
have  dictated,  and  which  any  other  man  of  his  na- 
tion, if  placed  in  his  circumstances,  would  cer- 
tainly have  adopted.  He  calmly  awaited  the  de- 
velopement  of  the  most  diabolical  plot  that  malice 
had  ever  conceived.  He  surrendered  himself  to 
his  accusers  without  resistance.  He  submitted  to 
his  sentence  without  appeal.  He  suffered  the  death 
of  the  cross  without  a  murmur.* 

It  is  at  variance  with  the  known  laws  of  our 
nature  that  a  man  in  such  circumstances  should 
make  no  effort  to  save  his  life ;  as  it  is  repugnant 
to  our  natural  sensibilities  that  so  good  a  man,  one 
who  had  never  harmed  a  single  being,  never  cher- 
ished a  private  end,  never  breathed  but  for  the 
good  of  his  nation,  should  be  so  cruelly  put  to 
death. 

But  on  further  examination  of  the  evangelic  re- 
cords, it  appears  that  Jesus  Christ  foresaw  and 
foretold  the  time  and  manner  of  his  death ;  and, 
what  is  still  more  remarkable,  he  distinctly  said  to 
his  disciples  that  though  he  should  speedily  be  sub- 

*  Compare  Mark  xiv.  Luke  xxii.  xxiii.  John  xix. 


16  THE    RESURRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

jected  to  an  ignominious  death,  yet  within  three 
days  after  the  event  he  would  be  restored  to  life ! 
"Behold,"  said  he  to  the  twelve,  "we  go  up 
to  Jerusalem,  and  all  things  that  are  written  by  the 
prophets  concerning  the  Son  of  man  shall  be 
accomplished.  For  he  shall  be  delivered  unto 
the  Gentiles,  and  shall  be  mocked,  and  spite- 
fully entreated,  and  spitted  on :  and  they  shall 
scourge  him,  and  put  him  to  death :  and  the  third 
day  he  shall  rise  again.''"^  Truly  a  most  extraor- 
dinary "  saying !" 

Now  every  man  knows  that  sooner  or  later  he 
must  die ;  and  one  may  have  an  impression  that  he 
will  die  at  such  a  time,  and,  it  may  be,  in  a  particu- 
lar way ;  and  it  is  possible  that  the  event  may  in- 
dicate the  correctness  of  his  forethought.  Hence, 
what  are  termed  "  presentiments,"  which,  though 
common  to  minds  of  an  imaginative  cast,  are  sel- 
dom realized. 

Man  may  have  his  nervous  apprehensions  or  may 
indulge  in  conjecture ;  but  of  himself  can  know 
neither  the  time  nor  the  manner  of  his  death. 
This  is  so  obvious  that  no  one  in  his  senses  would 
ever  venture  to  predict  the  time  and  manner  of  his 
decease.  Even  when  exposed  to  imminent  peril, 
whatever  may  be  his  thoughts,  he  cannot  say  to  a 
certainty  that  he  shall  be  killed  or  drowned  at  that 
time,  and  in  a  certain  way. 

Much  less,  then,  would  any  one  venture  to  affirm 

*■  Luke  xviii.  31-34.     John  xii.  23-36. 


THE    PREDICTION.  17 

that  he  will  come  to  life  again  within  three  days 
and  three  nights  after  his  death  and  burial.  If 
the  finite  mind  cannot  read  the  future,  it  is  still 
more  evident  that  no  created  mind  can  reverse  the 
laws  of  nature  :  and  hence  we  may  search  in  vain 
amid  the  annals  of  our  race  for  any  prediction 
analogous  to  that  which  Christ  was  known  to  have 
uttered,  and  that  more  than  once,  before  he  was 
crucified  and  slain. 

Throughout  the  realms  of  heathendom  there  was 
no  belief  in  a  resurrection  of  the  body.  The  idea, 
as  advanced  by  Paul,  was  wholly  new,  even  to  the 
highly  philosophic  mind  of  Grecian  antiquity  ;  and 
though  some  of  the  Israelites  believed  in  a  final 
resurrection,  no  one  of  their  nation,  from  Moses 
down  to  Malachi,  had  ever  predicted  of  another, 
much  less  of  himself,  that  after  being  "  three  days 
and  three  nights  in  the  heart  of  the  earth"  he 
would  rise  from  the  grave. 

How  could  any  self-conscious  mortal  say,  what 
no  mere  man  in  solemn  earnest  would  dare  to 
affirm  :  ''I  have  power  over  my  own  life  ;  I  have 
power  to  lay  it  down,  and  I  have  power  to  take  it 
agam.    "^^ 

But  though  Christ  laid  claim  to  this  power  over 
his  own  life,  and  had  said  in  the  hearing  of  his  dis- 
ciples that  he  would  rise  again,  yet  this  saying  was 
^' hid  from  them^"  and  ^' they  understood  it  not." 
So  foreign  was  it  to  their  wonted  sentiments,  so 

*  John  X.  18. 

2* 


18  THE    RESURRECTION    OF   JEiSUS    CHRIST. 

contrary  to  their  experience,  tliat  they  could  not 
entertain  even  the  thought ;  or  it  was  hid  from 
them  that  they  might  at  last  be  more  thoroughly 
convinced  of  the  fact  itself:  for,  if  they  had  not 
believed  that  Christ  would  rise  from  the  dead  on 
the  third  day  after  his  burial,  his  resurrection  would 
naturally  recall  his  words  to  their  minds ;  and  thus 
the  prediction  would  serve  to  strengthen  their  faith 
in  the  event. 

Despair  at  times  paralyzes  all  power  of  thought; 
and  it  may  be  that  their  disappointment  was  so 
great  as  to  render  them  unable  at  the  time  to  recall 
what  Christ  had  said.  Deeply  pained  as  they  must 
have  been  to  witness  the  sufferings  and  ignominy  to 
which  their  Master  had  been  subjected ;  and  know- 
ing that  they  themselves  were  consequently  exposed 
to  the  greater  contumely  and  hate,  it  would  have 
been  contrary  to  the  wonted  operations  of  the  mind 
under  such  circumstances  had  they  then  been  able 
to  rely  on  a  prediction  which,  at  the  time  it  was 
uttered,  could  not  have  been  apprehended  by  them 
in  its  true  significancy. 

But  had  this  prediction  been  overheard  by  the 
enemies  of  Christ,  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose 
that  it  would  have  made  a  very  different  impression 
on  their  minds.  Not  recognizing  him  as  the  prom- 
ised Messiah,  it  could  only  have  furnished  them 
with  additional  proof  of  his  impious  assumption 
and  sinister  design,  and  consequently  incited  them 
to  deadlier  enmity. 


THE    PREDICTION.  19 

Yet,  if  they  were  instrumental  in  putting  Christ 
to  death,  it  would  have  been  but  natural  for  them 
to  conclude  that  the  disciples  of  Christ  might  recol- 
lect his  prediction  ;  and  to  shield  themselves  from 
the  odium  of  having  followed  an  impostor,  might 
avail  themselves  of  it,  in  some  way,  to  impose  on 
popular  credulity. 

Having  witnessed  the  Crucifixion,  and  seen  how 
Jesus  whom  they  maligned  and  unjustly  prosecuted 
had  so  meekly  given  up  the  ghost,  it  is  by  no  means 
improbable  that  the  vindictive  passions  by  which 
they  had  been  actuated,  gave  place  to  disturbing 
thoughts,  and  dark  misgivings  such  as  these: — 
We  have  pronounced  him  an  impostor,  and  have 
caused  him  to  be  put  to  death  as  a  blasphemer. 
What  if  we  were  blinded  by  bigotry,  and  inflamed 
by  hatred  in  pronouncing  sentence  against  him  ? 
Ah,  did  we  not  in  our  madness  even  suborn  wit- 
nesses ?  We  have  cried  to  Heaven  and  said,  "His 
blood  be  upon  us,  and  our  children  !"  What  if,  in 
accordance  with  his  own  words,  he  should  rise  from 
the  dead  !  But  he  is  dead.  We  have  seen  him 
die.  He  cannot  rise.  No  man  of  himself  ever 
rose  from  the  dead.  But  his  disciples  may  secrete 
his  body  ;  and  should  they  contrive  to  make  the 
people  believe  that  he  has  risen,  so  deep  is  now 
their  sympathy  with  the  crucified  Jesus  whom  they 
loved  to  follow,  that  it  may  react  to  our  injury,  and 
eventually  to  our  overthrow. 

Such  a  representation  of  their  views  and  feelings 


20  THE    RESURRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

as  consequent  on  the  act  which  they  had  perpe- 
trated, is  far  from  being  a  gratuitous  conjecture. 
They  have  put  Christ  to  death ;  but  the  chief 
priests  and  pharisees  are  not  content.  If  the  form  of 
Him  whom  they  had  so  cruelly  scourged  and  cruci- 
fied has  not  risen  before  the  eye  of  their  conscience, 
the  recollection  of  what  he  once  said  has  rushed  to 
their  hearts,  and  thej  cannot  rest. 

The  morning,  therefore,  after  Christ  was  sepul- 
chred, they  sought  an  audience  with  Pilate,  and 
said  unto  him :  "  Sir,  we  remember  that  that  de- 
ceiver said  while  he  was  yet  alive,  After  three  days 
I  will  rise  again.  Command,  therefore,  that  the 
sepulchre  be  made  sure  until  the  third  day,  lest 
his  disciples  come  by  night  and  steal  him  away, 
and  say  unto  the  people.  He  is  risen  from  the  dead; 
so  the  last  error  shall  be  worse  than  the  first."* 

Thus  it  appears  that  they  were  not  ignorant  of 
the  prediction  which  Christ  had  uttered  ;  that  they 
dreaded  the  thought  of  its  being  even  seemingly 
fulfilled;  perceiving,  as  they  did,  that  the  popular 
impression  of  his  having  risen  from  the  dead  w^ould 
tend  to  advance  his  cause  far  more  than  his  teach- 
ings and  works  had  already  done ;  and  hence  their 
conviction  that  some  precautions  should  be  adopted, 
against  any  fraudulent  design  that  might  be  enter- 
tained, and  their  determination  that  something 
should  be  done  at  once  to  preclude  even  the  appa- 
rent accomplishment  of  a  well-known  prophecy. 

*  Matt,  xxvii.  63,  64. 


THE    PREDICTION.  21 

It  would  seem  that  Pilate  himself  coincided  Avith 
them  in  this  opinion  ;  for,  though  his  reply  was  brief, 
it  was  prompt  and  pertinent :  "  Ye  have  a  watch  : 
go  your  way  ;  make  it  as  sure  as  you  can.  So  they 
went  and  made  the  sepulchre  sure  ;  sealing  the  stone 
and  setting  a  watch."* 

This,  however,  was  no  more  than  should  have 
been  done,  on  the  supposition  that  Christ  had  been 
justly  put  to  death  as  a  malefactor.  It  is  some- 
times important  to  guard  the  dead  body  of  one  who 
has  been  publicly  executed  according  to  the  forms 
of  law,  lest  the  sight  of  it  should  cause  a  reaction 
in  the  public  mind,  or  inflame  the  passions  of  those 
who  had  espoused  his  cause  ;  and  it  is  possible  that 
Pilate,  being  a  ruler,  might  have  been  influenced 
by  this  consideration. 

But  not  so,  the  priests  and  pharisees  :  they  in- 
tend to  confute  Christ's  pretensions  to  the  Messiah- 
ship  of  the  Jews  by  disproving  his  own  words.  He 
had  publicly  said  that  he  would  "  rise  again  on  the 
third  day  ;"  and  they  will  see  to  it  that  he  does  not : 
not  even  the  sanctity  of  the  Sabbath  may  interfere 
with  the  necessity  of  the  case.  "  The  last  error  " 
must,  if  possible,  at  whatever  cost  and  trouble, 
whatever  hazard  to  our  ceremonial  consistency,  be 
precluded. 

And  now  they  have  secured  the  hody:  it  is  closely 
encased,  and  strongly  guarded  ;  and  they  are  im- 
patiently awaiting  the  dawn  of  the  third  day. 

■»  Matt.  xxii.  65,  66. 


22  THE    RESURRECTION    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 


CHAPTEK  11. 

THE  MISSING  BODY. 

Lo,  the  predicted  morn  has  gilded  the  eastern 
horizon  ;  and  now  the  light  of  that  day,  ever  after 
to  be  distinguished  and  honoured  as  the  first  day 
of  the  week,  is  thrown  with  resplendent  lustre 
over  the  far-famed  city  of  the  Jews.  There,  on 
yonder  eminence,  can  still  be  seen  the  cross  where 
Jesus  was  crucified  ;  and  there,  in  that  garden,  is 
the  new-made  sepulchre  where  his  dead  body  was 
laid  ;  and  there  too  is  the  "  great  stone"  that  was 
rolled  against  its  mouth. 

But  where  are  the  Roman  soldiers  who  had  been 
so  urgently  summoned,  and  authoritatively  stationed 
there  to  guard  with  unwonted  vigilance  a  poor  life- 
less body?  Where  the  chief  priests  and  the 
pharisees  who  were  to  assemble  this  third  day  before 
the  sepulchre  in  triumph  over  the  body  of  their 
victim,  still  dead,  and  now  mouldering,  notwith- 
standing his  prediction  ?  Are  not  all  the  disciples 
hiding  their  faces  in  shame  and  confusion  ?  Is  not 
the  whole  nation  now  convinced  that  he  who  had 
said  that  he  would  rise  on  the  third  day,  was  not 
only  a  blasphemer,  but  a  lying  impostor  ? 


THE    MISSING    BODY.  23 

Most  clearly,  the  priests  and  the  pharisees  in- 
tended to  make  a  triumphant  exhibition  of  Christ's 
dead  body  on  the  very  day  that  he  himself  had 
specified  as  the  day  of  his  resurrection,  or  they 
would  not  have  taken  the  pains  they  did  to  procure  a 
watch  and  secure  the  sepulchre. 

But  they  cannot  produce  the  body  :  it  is  not 
there,  where  they  knew  it  had  been  deposited,  and 
where  they  had  stationed  their  guard  ;  and  they  are 
now  forced  to  admit  the  fact. 

Here  the  testimony  of  the  Sanhedrim  agrees 
with  that  of  the  disciples  ;  and  it  is  important  to 
note  this  fact,  and  the  more  so,  considering  the 
effort  that  was  made  to  guard  the  sepulchre. 

Had  it  not  been  for  the  extraordinary  precau- 
tions which  the  priests  and  the  pharisees  adopted, 
it  might  have  been  difficult  to  show  that  the  body 
had  not  been  clandestinely  removed.  But  as  the 
stone  barrier  at  the  mouth  of  the  sepulchre  had 
been  sealed  in  their  presence,  and  the  watch  ap- 
pointed at  their  urgent  solicitation,  they  have  ren- 
dered themselves  the  most  important  witnesses  to 
the  fact  that  on  the  tJdrd  day  the  body  was  missing  ; 
and  they  are  bound  to  account  for  its  disappear- 
ance in  consistency  with  their  own  skeptical  princi- 
ples ;  or  they,  as  is  usually  the  case  with  the  evil- 
minded,  have  outwitted  themselves  :  nay,  more ; 
they  have  essentially  advanced  the  cause  which 
they  had  designed  to  crush. 

If  they  cannot  satisfactorily  solve  the   mystery 


24  THE    RESURRECTION    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 

of  the  missing  body,  the  "last  error"  which  the 
disciples  will  propagate  may  be  a  thousand  times 
worse  for  them  than  "  the  first :"  the  "last  error" 
may  involve  the  subversion  of  their  rule,  the  over- 
throw of  their  polity,  the  demolition  of  their  tem- 
ple :  it  may  be  the  death-knell  of  their  nation ! 

What  now  is  their  explanation  ?  Do  they  say 
that  Christ  was  not  dead  when  he  was  buried  ?  No; 
though  modern  infidels  in  extreme  cases  have  re- 
sorted to  this  hypothesis,  they  not  only  believed 
that  he  was  dead,  they  kneiv  that  he  was  ;  for  they 
had  seen  him  nailed  to  the  cross;  even  seen  him 
hanging  there  for  hours  until  he  bowed  his  head, 
and  gave  up  the  ghost.  They  had  stood  among 
those  who  taunted,  and  reviled  him,  and  challenged 
him  to  come  down  from  the  cross,  if  he  was  indeed, 
the  Son  of  God.  They  had  seen  him  taken  down 
from  the  cross  ;  and  they  knew  that  the  soldiers 
did  not  break  his  legs,  because  he  was  seen  to  be 
"dead  already,"  and  that  when  his  side  was 
pierced  "  forthwith  came  thereout  blood  and 
water."* 

As  they  had  been  so  maliciously  intent  on  his 
execution,  it  is  not  probable  they  would  have  been 
satisfied  unless  they  had  the  most  palpable  and  con- 
clusive evidence  that  he  was  dead ;  and  when  the 
body  was  missing,  if  it  had  occurred  to  them  to 
deny  that  he  was  dead  when  entombed,  they  must 
have  known  that  no  one  would  have  sided  with  them, 

*  John  XX.  33,  34.     Mark  xv.  44,  45. 


THE    MISSING    BODY.  25 

SO  long  as  great  numbers  had  been  witnesses  of  the 
fact  that  Christ  was  crucified  until  life  was  mani- 
festly extinct. 

Even  on  the  supposition  that  he  was  not  dead 
whoii  he  was  laid  in  the  sepulchre,  and  that  while 
there  he  revived  and  arose,  how  was  it  possible  for 
one  who  had  hung  in  agony  so  long  on  the  cross, 
and  whose  hands  as  well  as  side  had  been  pierced, 
to  remove  the  great  stone  which  obstructed  the 
entrance  of  the  sepulchre,  or  to  escape  the  vigi- 
lance of  the  guard  ? 

It  is  certainly  more  difficult  to  believe  that  he 
could,  than  that  he  was  dead  when  taken  down  from 
the  cross  ;  and  he  who  would  account  for  the  fact 
that  the  body  was  missing,  on  the  supposition  that 
he  had  revived  from  the  syncope  consequent  on  his 
suspension  from  the  cross,  and  had  forced  his  way 
out  of  the  sepulchre,  and  frightened  away  the  sol- 
diers who  guarded  its  entrance,  is  disqualified  by  a 
prejudiced  judgment  for  weighing  probable  evidence. 
He  may  vaunt  himself  on  his  philosophic  or  scien- 
tific culture  ;  but  had  he  been  an  eye-witness  of  the 
crucifixion ;  had  he  seen  the  body  when  it  was 
wrapped  in  grave  clothes,  and  seen  where  it  was 
laid,  and  how  the  sepulchre  was  alike  secured  against 
either  robbery  or  violence,  and  what  kind  of  a 
guard  had  been  stationed  there,  he  would  have  per- 
ceived, as  did  the  priests  and  pharisees  themselves, 
that  there  was  but  one  explanation  left  for  all 
those  who  were  not  disposed  or  prepared  to  admit 

3 


26  THE    RESURRECTION    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 

that  Christ  had  fulfilled  his  own  prediction  of  him- 
self. 

Either  that  body  was  in  some  way  clandestinely 
removed ;  or  Christ  rose  from  the  dead. 

If  it  was  removed,  it  must  have  been  so  by^the 
agency  either  of  the  friends,  or  the  enemies  of 
Christ.  One  who  might  have  been  regardless  of 
his  living  teachings,  and  indifferent  to  his  end,  could 
hardly  have  had  a  thought  about  the  disposition  of 
his  dead  body  ;  much  less  subjected  himself  to  the 
trouble  and  risk  of  attempting  its  removal. 

Yet  it  is  quite  as  certain  that  they  who  opposed 
his  mission,  who  sought  his  death,  and  exulted  over 
his  fate,  would  not,  by  making  way  with  the  body, 
aim  to  make  it  appear  that  they  had  indeed  mur- 
dered the  Son  of  God  ;  and  that  the  disciples  whom 
they  had  opposed  and  reviled  were  worthy  of  all 
credit  and  honour.  Or,  if  they  had  maliciously 
aimed  to  revive  the  hopes  of  the  disciples  only  to 
subject  them  at  last  to  deeper  mortification  and  dis- 
grace, they  would  of  course  at  some  opportune 
moment  have  produced  the  body. 

Thus,  we  are  led  necessarily  to  examine  the  dis- 
ciples themselves ;  nor  would  we  fail  to  weigh  well 
the  charge  which  was  brought  against  them.  If 
that  body  was  stolen  it  was  stolen  by  them :  no  one 
else  would  have  done  it. 

But  no  reasonable  man  ever  acts  without  a 
motive  ;  and  we  can  conceive  of  none  which  might 
have  influenced  them  to  take  away  the  body  :  nor, 


THE    MISSING    BODY.  27 

by  so  doing,  could  they  have  hoped  to  gain  any 
credit  to  the  story  of  Christ's  resurrection,  when, 
so  long  as  it  was  in  their  possession,  it  could  only 
have  reminded  them  of  the  utter  falsity  of  his  own 
words. 

Besides ;  it  was  the  time  of  the  Passover,  and 
about  the  period  of  the  full  of  the  moon.  Jeru- 
salem was  thronged,  and  the  sepulchre  exposed  to 
observation.  Hence,  had  the  disciples  consented 
to  take  away  the  body,  they  must  have  been  devoid 
of  ordinary  forethought  to  have  hoped  to  succeed. 

They  must  have  known,  moreover,  that  the 
sepulchre  was  strongly  guarded  by  a  band  of 
Roman  soldiers.  Is  it  to  be  supposed,  then,  that 
they  who  had  so  lately  fled  from  the  band  that  had 
arrested  their  Master  ;  who,  notwithstanding  their 
protestations  of  inviolable  attachment  to  him,  were 
so  terrified  that  they  not  only  forsook  him,  but 
denied  their  discipleship,  and  sought  to  hide  them- 
selves ;  that  men  so  timid  and  irresolute  as  they 
must  have  been,  should  on  a  sudden  re-unite,  and 
concert  measures  to  surprise  the  guard,  force  the 
sepulchre,  and  carry  off  the  body  of  their  crucified 
Master  ? 

Unless  bereft  of  reason,  they  could  hardly 
have  engaged  in  an  enterprise  so  fool-hardy  as  that 
in  which  success  would  have  been  as  fatal  to  their 
cause,  as  failure  had  been  to  their  lives  ! 

No  ;  the  disciples  were  few  and  friendless,  de- 
jected and  powerless.     The  crucifixion  had  dashed 


^8  THE    RESURRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

their  hopes,  and  crushed  them  all  to  the  dust.  They 
had  little,  or  rather,  no  expectation  of  the  fulfil- 
ment of  their  Lord's  prediction ;  all  their  thoughts 
were  painfully  absorbed  in  the  apprehension  of 
being  themselves  arrested,  and  put  to  death  as  the 
followers  of  the  Nazarene.  As  soldiers  are  wont 
to  flee,  each  one  intent  on  his  own  safety,  when 
their  leader  is  slain,  so  had  the  disciples  all  dis- 
persed when  they  saw  the  great  stone  rolled  against 
the  mouth  of  the  sepulchre. 

Let  it  be  granted,  however,  that  in  their  own 
private  view  they  had  some  interest  in  taking 
away  the  body ;  and  that,  being  as  crafty  as  they 
were  cowardly,  they  watched  their  opportunity, 
came  to  the  sepulchre  at  an  hour  when  no  one  hap- 
pened to  pass,  and  found  all  the  guards  asleep. 

But  the  sepulchre  was  not  a  mound  of  soft  and 
yielding  earth:  it  had  been  hewn  out  in  a  rock,* 
and  the  stone  with  which  the  entrance  was  secured 
was  unusually  heavy,  and  carefully  sealed  ;t  audit 
is  not  more  obvious  that  they  must  remove  the  stone 
before  effecting  their  object,  than  that  they  could 
not  have  rolled  it  away  without  occasioning  some 
little  disturbance. 

Moreover  ;  though  one  might  naturally  suppose 
that  persons  in  so  great  danger,  as  were  the  dis- 
ciples, of  being  surprised  by  the  guard,  would 
have  been  as  expeditious  as  possible,  and  taken  up 
the  body  just  as  they  found  it ;  yet  they  did,  and 

*  Matt.  xxii.  60.  f  Matt.  xxii.  60,  66. 


THE    MISSING    BODY.  29 

this,  too,  amid  the  darkness  of  the  cave,  what  is 
not  usual  when  a  body  is  disinterred ;  what  could 
have  been  of  no  advantage  to  them,  and  must  needs 
have  delayed  them.  Before  they  took  the  body, 
they  divested  it  of  its  grave-clothes,  and  laid  them 
in  separate  parcels  around  the  sepulchre  !* 

It  is  not  probable,  however,  that  the  guards  slept. 
Their's  was  no  familiar  post  of  duty ;  nor  were 
they  ignorant  of  the  purport  of  their  charge. 
Stationed  where  they  had  never  been  before,  and 
at  the  mouth  of  that  sepulchre  which  but  a  few 
hours  before  had  attracted  the  gaze  of  the  multi- 
tude, it  is  more  reasonable  to  conclude  that  they 
were  animated  by  a  thrilling  curiosity,  or  excited 
by  the  fears  of  a  superstitious  prompting,  rather 
than  at  all  disposed  to  slumber. 

That  without  an  exception  all  should  have  fallen 
asleep  when  they  were  stationed  there  for  so  ex- 
traordinary a  purpose,  to  see  that  that  body  was 
not  stolen,  lest  it  should  be  said  that  the  crucified 
Jesus  had  risen  from  the  dead,  may  be  possible ; 
but  it  is  not  credible  :  especially  when  it  is  consid- 
ered that  these  guards  were  subjected  to  the  severest 
discipline  in  the  world.  It  was  death  for  a  Roman 
sentinel  to  sleep  on  his  post.  Yet  these  guards 
were  not  executed ;  nor  were  they  deemed  culpable 
even  by  the  rulers,  wofully  chagrined  and  exasper- 
ated as  they  must  have  been  by  the  failure  of  their 
plan  for  securing  the  body. 

*  John  XX.  6,  7. 


30  THE    RESURIIECTION    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 

But  as  the  Roman  discipline  was  so  severe, 
if  the  guards  had  fallen  asleep,  it  is  not  likely  that 
they  would  have  acknowledged  it :  it  is  incredible 
that  they  should  have  voluntarily  made  such  a  con- 
fession ;  it  is  certain  they  did  not. 

Recovering  from  the  death-like  terror  into  which 
they  were  all  thrown  by  the  appearance  of  the 
angel,  who  rolled  back  the  stone  from  the  mouth  of 
the  sepulchre,  and  sat  upon  it,  some  of  the  guard 
"  went  into  the  city,  and  showed  unto  the  chief 
priests  all  that  was  done ;  and  when  they  were  as- 
sembled with  the  elders,  and  had  taken  counsel, 
they  gave  large  money  unto  the  soldiers,  saying, 
Say  ye,  his  disciples  came  by  night  and  stole  him 
away  while  we  slept ;  and  if  this  come  to  the 
governor's  ears,  we  will  persuade  him,  and  secure 
you:"*  thus  anticipating  the  very  objection  which 
would  have  occurred  to  the  watch,  well  knowing,  as 
they  did,  that  they  were  amenable,  not  to  them,  but 
to  Pilate.  "  So  they  took  the  money,  and  did  as 
they  were  taught :"  ^.  e.  they  were  bribed  to  say 
what  they  knew  to  be  false,  were  instigated  by  the 
priests  and  elders  to  propagate  a  shameless  and 
ridiculous  falsehood. 

Such,  however,  is  only  a  specimen  of  the  subter- 
fuges to  which  Infidelity  is  often  constrained  to  re- 
sort. Absurdity  may  be  more  easily  embraced 
than  obnoxious  truth  admitted.  Nonsense  is  the 
perfection  of  reason  when  moral  demonstration 
conflicts  with  selfish  interests. 

»  Matt,  xxviii.  11-15. 


THE    MISSING    BODY.  31 

It  is  curious  that  these  priests  and  elders  should 
have  professed  to  rely,  and  aimed  to  persuade  their 
countrymen  to  rely,  on  the  testimony  of  a  heathen 
guard,  and  that  concerning  what  had  taken  place 
while  they  were  avowedly  asleep. 

It  was  reasonable  to  suppose  that  they  were  at 
least  over-anxious,  and  sorely  pressed  for  evidence  ; 
but  it  is  not  more  preposterous  than  some  of  the 
hypotheses  of  infidel  philosophy  at  the  present  day  ; 
it  is  in  entire  harmony  with  the  fact  that  some  will 
now  rely  on  the  testimony  of  a  Celsus,  or  a  Julian, 
rather  than  on  that  of  a  Moses,  or  a  Paul.  It  shows 
us  what  infidelity  is,  and  ever  must  be — a  sheer  ne- 
gation of  truth,  void  of  all  foundation  for  its  own 
theories,  and  deriving  its  conclusions  from  unten- 
able premises. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  priests  and  elders 
did  not  themselves  say  that  the  disciples  came  by 
night  and  stole  the  body  :  this  would  have  been  to 
betray  too  much  solicitude,  and  might  have  exposed 
them  to  some  embarrassing  questions.  They  told 
the  soldiers  to  say  this  :  "  Say  ye  ;'  well  knowing, 
as  they  did,  that  by  often  repeating  what  is  false, 
men  not  unfrequently  come  to  regard  it  as  true ; 
that  the  people  are  always  forw^ard  to  adopt  the 
first  version  of  any  occurrence  ;  and  that  if  this 
story  could  but  be  rendered  current  among  them, 
they  would  be  only  the  more  prejudiced  against  the 
disciples,  and  the  less  disposed  to  inquire  into  the 
facts  in  the  case. 


32  THE    RESURRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

The  common  mind  in  all  ages  has  been  more 
easily  swayed  by  dogmatism  and  effrontery  than 
duly  influenced  by  argument  and  reason  ;  and  when 
a  lie  accords  wuth  one's  predominant  humour  or 
favours  selfish  gratification,  there  will  never  be 
wanting  enough  to  embrace  it,  though  on  reflection  it 
might  be  seen  to  involve  a  combination  of  impossible 
circumstances,  perhaps  an  egregious  absurdity. 

If  it  may  not  be  admitted  that  the  greater  the  lie 
the  more  readily  will  it  be  believed  by  the  unthink- 
ing; yet  it  is  on  this  principle  of  human  nature 
that  the  showman  presumes,  when,  through  the 
medium  of  his  paid  agents,  he  contrives  to  dupe 
the  credulous,  and  augment  his  receipts.  In  this 
way,  too,  we  may  account  for  the  fact  that  so  many 
preposterous  dogmas  and  lying  wonders  are  re- 
garded by  not  a  few  at  the  present  day  as  Chris- 
tian verities.  Put  into  circulation  by  designing 
priests  or  others,  they  have  been  repeated,  and 
even  impressed  in  all  their  naked  falsity  on  the 
susceptible  mind  of  childhood,  until  they  have 
come  to  be  believed  :  just  as  the  story  of  the  theft 
was  currently  reported  among  the  Jews  so  late  as 
the  date  of  John's  Gospel. 

In  various  relations,  and  for  different  ends, 
shrewd  men  often  contrive  to  make  others  believe 
what  they  themselves  know  to  be  false  ;  and  it  is  in 
this  way  that  some  get  inty  oflices  of  rule,  and  that 
others  suddenly  become  rich. 

That  the  Jewish  rulers  did  not  believe  what  they 


THE    MISSING    BODY.  33 

instructed  and  bribed  the  soldiers  to  say,  is  almost 
self-evident.  If  they  did,  why  were  not  the  disciples 
at  once  arrested  and  examined  ?  For  such  an  act 
as  was  imputed  to  them  involved  a  serious  offence 
against  the  existent  authorities.  Why  were  they 
not  compelled  to  give  up  the  body  ?  Or,  in  the 
event  of  their  being  unable  to  exculpate  themselves 
from  the  charge,  why  were  they  not  punished  for 
their  crime  ? 

If  the  Jewish  rulers  could  effect  the  condemna- 
tion and  death  of  Christ,  they  surely  have  power 
enough  to  arraign  his  disciples  for  having  broken 
the  seal  which  had  been  authoritatively  set  on  the 
door  of  the  sepulchre,  and  thereby  frustrated  their 
own  precautions  to  secure  the  body.  If  they  have 
caused  it  to  be  rumoured  that  the  body  was  stolen, 
they  are  bound  to  make  it  appear,  if  not  from  a  re- 
gard to  their  own  authority,  at  least  for  the  sake 
of  their  own  reputation  ;  and  if  they  do  not,  they 
stand  before  the  eye  of  the  whole  community,  self- 
convicted  of  falsehood  and  slander. 

But  so  far  from  there  being  any  proof  that  the 
disciples  on  this  account  were  brought  to  justice,  it 
is  no  where  intimated  that  the  rulers  even  attempted 
to  substantiate  the  charge. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  they  really  had  no  inter- 
est in  the  final  disposition  of  the  body ;  and  that, 
whatever  interest  there  might  have  been  in  the 
event,  it  would  soon  subside,  as  all  popular  excite- 
ments usually  do.     This,  be  it  considered,  differed 


34  THE    RESUREECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

from  any  occurrence  that  had  ever  agitated  the 
mind  of  the  people. 

Amid  all  the  scenes  through  which  the  Jewish 
people  had  passed,  all  the  extraordinary  events 
wdiich  had  marked  their  history,  there  was  no  par- 
allel to  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus  ;  and  amid  all  the 
various  miracles  which  had  been  WTOught  by  their 
prophets,  nothing  could  have  been  so  strange  to 
them,  and  especially  to  the  rulers  who  had  been  so 
intensely  anxious,  so  particularly  careful  to  seal 
and  guard  the  sepulchre,  as  that  the  dead  body  of 
Jesus  which  they  had  seen  laid  there,  and  knew  to 
be  there  when  they  set  their  watch,  should  now  be 
missing. 

If  the  people  who  had  thronged  the  cross  with 
mingled  feelings  of  grief  and  indignation  must  now 
have  gazed  in  awe  and  wonder  at  the  vacant  sepul- 
chre, it  is  hardly  possible  that  the  priests  and  rulers 
of  the  Jews  should  have  been  unconcerned  when 
they  thought  of  the  mysterious  disappearance  of 
that  corpse.  It  was  their  dread  of  having  it  even 
whispered  that  Christ  had  risen  according  to  his 
own  declaration,  that  had  led  them  to  seal  the  great 
stone,  and  throw  around  it  a  strong  guard  of  Roman 
soldiers ;  and  if  so  be  that  the  sepulchre  has  been 
invaded,  and  the  body  stolen,  much  more  must  this 
same  dread  of  having  it  said  that  Christ  is  risen, 
for  which,  indeed,  the  missing  body  now  affords  a 
pretext,  have  impelled  them  to  search  out,  and 
arrest  the  instigators  of  so  audacious  a  scheme. 


THE    MISSING    BODY.  35 

If  any  men  were  ever  under  the  strongest  pos- 
sible inducements  not  to  let  a  matter  rest,  but  to 
ferret  out  and  prosecute  it  to  the  utmost  extent  of 
the  law,  it  was  these  same  priests  and  rulers. 

Let  them  lose  no  time  in  proving  the  story  which 
they  have  originated,  lest  they  should  betray  their 
true  features  to  the  gaze  of  the  populace  ;  nay,  lest 
the  disciples  themselves  should  gain  a  priceless  ad- 
vantage over  them  in  the  controversy  which  is  soon 
to  convulse  society,  and  upheave  the  consolidated 
opinions  of  ages. 

Already  have  the  disciples  heard  of  the  theft 
which  is  imputed  to  them  ;  and  they  have  not  only 
contradicted  the  story,  they  have  branded  the  origi- 
nators of  it  with  public  infamy  :  for  they  have 
published  to  the  world  that  the  priests  and  elders 
actually  bribed  the  soldiers  to  say  what  they  knew 
to  be  false,  and  could  not  have  known  to  be  true 
when  they  were  all  asleep  ! 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  though  the  report  which 
they  had  so  solicitously  aimed  to  preclude,  was  soon 
after  the  disappearance  of  the  body  rife  in  the 
Jewish  community  ;  yet  all  that  the  priests  and 
rulers  did  with  the  disciples  was  to  command  them 
that  they  should  not  teach  in  the  name  of  Jesus. 
They  were  afterwards  repeatedly  charged  with  dis- 
obedience to  this  command ;  but  nothing  was  ever 
alleged  against  them  on  the  ground  of  the  story 
which  had  become  current  among  the  Jews  ;  though 
the   apostles  had  at  last  plainly  declared   in   the 


36  THE    RESURRECTION    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 

presence  of  the  whole  Jewish  sanhedrim  that  Christ 
rose  from  the  dead. 

It  is  conclusive,  therefore,  that  what  the  soldiers 
said  was  a  sheer  invention  of  the  rulers,  as  mali- 
cious and  shameless  as  it  was  absurd.  It  was 
designed  to  forestall  popular  opinion  respecting  the 
event,  and  to  preclude  all  inquiry  into  facts  ;  and 
it  is  not  at  all  improbable  that  if  any  one  of  those 
rulers  had  been  privately  questioned  as  to  the  story, 
he  would  have  disclaimed  all  agency  in  it  ;  and  it 
may  be  expressed  his  profound  surprise  that  the 
soldiers  could  say  so.  Unprincipled  rulers,  whether 
in  the  church  or  the  state,  often  know  but  too  well 
how  to  compass  sinister  ends  without  disclosing 
their  own  hand. 

Having  originated  the  story,  these  priests  and 
elders  would  have  left  it  with  the  soldiers  without 
a  word,  for  or  against  it,  to  work  its  mischievous 
way  into  wide-spread  circulation  ;  and  they  might 
not  have  cared  had  there  been  only  in  private  some 
diversity  of  opinion. 

But  to  hear  it  whispered  that  He  whom  they 
had  executed  as  an  impostor  and  a  blasphemer  had 
risen  from  the  dead ;  and  at  last,  to  hear  it  pro- 
claimed that  they  had  "  killed  the  Prince  of  life 
whom  God  hath  raised  from  the  dead,"  no  wonder 
they  w^ere  exasperated  as  well  as  troubled.  .  It  was 
to  be  reminded  of  their  suborned  witnesses,  and  of 
the  price  of  blood  which  they  had  themselves  paid, 
and  of  their  own  horrid  imprecations   upon   them- 


THE    MTSSINCJ    BODY.  37 

selves  and  their  children  !  ''  Did  we  not  straitly 
command  you  that  ye  should  not  teach  in  this 
name  ?  And  behold,  ye  have  filled  Jerusalem  Avith 
your  doctrine,  and  intend  to  bring  tliis  mans  blood 
upon  us  f"^ 

Wretched  men  !  who  can  believe  that  they  would 
not  have  exposed  the  theft,  and  overwhelmed  the 
apostles  with  shame  and  confusion  of  face,  had  it 


wer 


? 


only  been  in  their  po 

It  may  be  thought  that  if  they  did  not  accredit 
their  own  explanation  of  the  missing  body,  they 
would  have  embraced  the  apostles'  doctrine  :  this 
by  no  means  follows.  One  may  not  be  able  to 
make  out  his  case,  and  yet  be  unprepared  to  espouse 
the  opposite  cause,  be  rather  only  the  more  preju- 
diced against  the  right  in  consequence  of  his  own 
failure.  If  actuated  by  motives  which  will  not 
endure  scrutiny,  or  swayed  by  selfish  interests,  he 
will  be  exasperated  rather  than  convinced  by  any 
array  of  fact  and  argument  :  such  is  ofttimes  the 
unreasonableness  and  the  obstinacy  of  our  nature. 

With  these  rulers  of  the  Jews,  it  had  long  been, 
and  was  then,  and  perhaps,  more  than  ever,  a  strug- 
gle for  pre-eminence  and  rule.  As  hypocritical 
and  unscrupulous  as  they  were  bigoted,  and  now 
fearing  the  loss  of  their  authority  over  the  people, 
they  cannot  hear,  much  less  examine,  a  case  which, 
if  it  proves  anything,  proves  too  much  for  those 
who  were  accessory  to  the  recent  tragedy. 

*  Acts  V.  2. 
4 


38  THE    RESURRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

To  retract  the  error,  or  to  acknowledge  the 
wrong,  is  always  too  hard  for  those  who  love  the 
ways  and  wages  of  iniquity  more  than  truth  and 
justice  ;  and  above  all,  for  men  who  at  every  step 
of  their  elevation  to  power  and  rule  have  violated 
some  principle  of  truth  and  right,  and  thus  har- 
dened their  hearts. 

But  if  men  could  put  Christ  to  death,  notwith- 
standing the  astonishing  and  gracious  miracles 
which  they  knew  he  had  wrought,  and  some  of 
which,  in  all  probability,  they  had  themselves  seen, 
it  is  evident  that  they  were  not  in  a  suitable  frame 
of  mind  to  consider  the  proofs  of  his  having  risen 
from  the  dead. 

If  any  could  reject  Christ  even  when  they  ac- 
tually saw  him  raise  Lazarus  from  the  grave,  it  is 
morally  certain  that  they  would  not  be  forward  to 
conclude  that  he  himself  had  risen  from  the  dead 
because  his  body  was  not  to  be  found  ;  and  much 
more  that  they  would  not  believe  that  he  had  risen, 
simply  on  the  testimony  of  his  disciples,  against 
whom  they  must  have  been  as  prejudiced  and  em- 
bittered as  they  had  been  against  Christ  himself. 

The  same  principle  which  led  them  to  reject 
Christ's  miracles  while  he  was  alive,  would  Necessa- 
rily incline  them  to  blind  their  eyes  to  all  the  evi- 
dences of  his  mission,  after  he  was  seen  to  be 
dead. 

Hating  his  doctrines,  how  could  they  be  con- 
vinced  by  his  works  ?       Having  thirsted  for  his 


THE    MISSING    BODY.  39 

blood,  how  could  they  calmly  entertain  the  thought 
that  he  had  come  to  life  again  ? 

With  such  views  and  feelings,  all  darkened  by 
hate,  and  inflamed  by  bigotry,  they  have  nothing 
to  hope,  but  everything  to  fear,  if  so  be  that  Christ 
has  risen  from  the  dead.  And  if  any  among  them 
should  yet  be  convinced,  and  brought  to  believe  in 
Christ,  it  will  be  by  a  miracle  of  mercy ^  such  as 
He  who  prayed  for  his  murderers  alone  knows  how 
to  invoke  ;  and  such  as  One  must  himself  have  risen 
from  the  dead,  to  be  able  to  perform. 


40  THE    KESUIUIECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 


CHAPTEK  III. 

FMESUMPTIVJE  PROOFS  OF  CHRIST'S  RESTIRRECTION. 

If,  then,  notwithstanding  the  precautions  which 
had  been  instituted  against  either  the  forcible  or 
clandestine  removal  of  the  body,  it  was  not  to  be 
found  in  the  sepulchre  on  the  morning  of  the  third 
day  after  the  crucifixion ;  if  neither  the  enemies 
nor  the  friends  of  Jesus  either  would  or  could  have 
taken  it  away  ;  if  the  priests  and  elders  could  not 
have  accredited  the  story  they  had  put  into  circu- 
lation, and  there  were  ample  reasons  of  a  moral 
nature  why  they  should  have  been  most  reluctant 
to  inquire  into  the  facts  in  the  case,  it  is  to  be  pre- 
sumed that  the  prediction,  which  Christ  had  been 
known  to  utter,  was  literally  fulfilled. 

There  is  no  intrinsic  absurdity  in  the  supposi- 
tion ;  nor  was  such  an  event  impossible.  He  who 
created  man  has  certainly  the  power  to  restore  a 
dead  man  to  life  ;  and  if  God  sent  Christ  into  the 
world,  he  could  as  easily  have  raised  him  from  the 
dead,  and  might  have  done  so,  had  it  been  neces- 
sary to  any  wise  end. 

Viewing  Christ  as  a  mere  man,  it  is  possible  that 
he  might  have  been  endowed  with  prescience ;   and 


PRESUMPTIVE  PROOFS  OF  THE  RESURRECTION.     41 

possible,  considering  the  end  of  his  mission,  that 
he  might  have  been  raised  from  the  dead  to  attest 
the  truth  of  all  that  he  had  been  commissioned  to 
promulge. 

But  if  he  was  indeed  the  G-od-man,  it  was  just  as 
possible  for  him  to  reanimate  the  body  which  was 
laid  in  the  sepulchre  of  Joseph,  and  in  that  same 
body  to  resume  his  humanity,  as  it  was  for  him,  be- 
fore his  crucifixion,  by  virtue  of  the  Divinity  veiled 
in  his  form,  to  remand  the  soul,  and  revivify  the 
body  of  a  man  who  had  been  dead  four  days ;  nor 
is  it  more  difficult  in  the  one  case  than  in  the  other, 
but  alike  impossible,  for  us  to  conceive  how  this 
might  have  been  done. 

Moreover  ;  it  is  not  improbable  that  a  person 
who  had  been  born  of  an  immaculate  conception, 
and  three  times  declared,  by  an  audible  voice  from 
heaven,  to  be  the  Son  of  God ;  who  had  never  ut- 
tered what  was  not  true,  never  spoken  a  word  that 
he  was  constrained  to  recall  or  regret,  never  per- 
formed a  work  that  did  not  at  once  attest  his  supe- 
rity  over  all  preceding  prophets  sent  of  God,  and 
his  power  over  the  laws  of  the  material  creation  ; 
who  foresaw  his  own  death,  and  might  in  his  hour 
of  trial  have  summoned  legions  of  angels  to  his 
rescue :  it  is  not  improbable  that  such  a  person 
would  verify  his  own  prediction,  and  rise  victorious 
over  the  assaults  of  death  and  hell. 

Since  the  world  began,  no  man  had  of  himself 
risen  from  the  grave  ;  but  no  one  before  this   same 

4  * 


42  THE    RESURRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

Jesus  had  ever  been  seen  to  unite  in  himself  the 
attributes  of  a  God  with  the  properties  of  a  man ; 
and  hence,  had  he  on  the  third  day  after  his  cruci- 
fixion risen  from  the  dead,  the  act  itself  would  have 
been  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  most  extraordi- 
nary of  all  lives,  a  life  of  miracles. 

In  itself  the  act  could  hardly  have  been  more 
wonderful  than  that,  by  a  touch,  or  by  a  word,  he 
should  h^ve  opened  the  eyes  of  men  who  had  been 
born  blind,  cured  multitudes  of  the  most  desperate 
diseases  to  which  humanity  is  subject,  fed  five  thou- 
sand people  by  multiplying  a  few  loaves  of  bread, 
stilled  the  tempest,  walked  on  the  sea,  cast  out 
devils,  raised  the  dead. 

And  has  He  gone  down  to  an  undistinguishable 
grave,  he,  who  while  he  lived  knew  no  sin,  and  who, 
in  the  hour  of  his  death,  suffered  mental  agony 
such  as  no  man  had  ever  borne  ?  Was  there  a  pe- 
culiarity in  his  death  even  to  the  mind  of  heathen- 
dom ?  And  is  there  no  significancy  in  his  burial  ? 
Can  it  be  that  the  grave  has  closed  for  ever  over 
him  to  whom  all  the  prophets  had  borne  witness ; 
and  to  whom  also  the  expectation  of  the  world  had 
been  so  long  directed,  whose  birth  had  been  an- 
nounced by  angels,  whose  Godlike  acts  had  been  con- 
fessed by  devils,  at  whose  command  all  nature  bowed 
as  in  the  presence  of  her  God,  and  with  whose  ex- 
piring cry  nature  herself  sympathized  ? 

If  not  one  of  his  various  miracles  had  failed  of 
its  designed  end,  shall  the  malice  of  his  enemies 


PRESUMPTIVE  PROOFS  OF  THE  RESURRECTION.     43 

defeat  his  well  known  prediction  ?  If  none  of  his 
miracles  were,  as  was  the  case  with  all  heathen 
prodigies,  performed  for  trifling  ends,  but  all  in- 
volved the  most  important  truths,  and  alike  tended 
to  subserve  the  development  of  one  vast  scheme  of 
human  redemption,  then  was  the  way  prepared,  and 
a  necessity  laid,  for  a  yet  greater  miracle  than  he 
had  ever  wrought,  to  wit ;  the  verification  of  his  own 
2Jlighted  word  that  he  would  rise  from  the  dead. 

So  it  appears  to  us,  as  we  reflect  on  the  tenor  of 
his  history ;  and  so  it  should  appear  to  any  one, 
who,  after  the  lapse  of  ages,  would  be  prepared  to 
examine,  or  can  be  competent  to  weigh  with  pre- 
cision and  candour,  the  facts  in  the  case. 

He  must  be  strangely  obtuse  who  can  be  imposed 
on  by  the  modern  infidel's  position  that  the  very 
desire  of  immortality  disqualifies  one  from  exer- 
cising an  impartial  judgment  in  relation  to  Christ's 
history  :  a  position  which,  if  it  be  not  too  fallacious 
to  be  formally  exposed,  must  be  seen  to  operate 
with  more  logical  force  against  his  qualifications  for 
examining  a  matter  which  clashes  with  his  selfish 
interests,  and  may  foreshadow  his  doom. 

To  be  indifi'erent  in  a  matter  of  so  great  moment ; 
to  divest  oneself  of  all  concern  as  to  the  result,  if 
indeed  that  were  possible,  is  to  neglect  all  inquiry; 
to  have  one's  mind  pre-occupied  with  earth-born 
interests,  to  surrender  one's  being  to  casual  impres- 
sions and  fortuitous  developments.  Or,  to  bring 
to  such  an  inquiry  a  mind  swayed  by  evil  passions 


44  THE   RESURRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

and  darkened  by  prejudice,  is  to  narrow  one's  range 
of  thought ;  to  overlook  what  is  logical  in  reason- 
ing, and  sound  in  testimony,  and  see  only  what  is 
objectionable  to  lust  and  inexplicable  to  ignorance. 

In  all  inquiries  of  a  moral  nature  there  must  be 
a  love  of  truth,  and  a  desire  to  ascertain  the  truth, 
whatever  its  relations  and  demands  ;  and  in  refer- 
ence to  the  miraculous  fact  in  question,  a  fact  which 
cannot  be  admitted  without  admitting  the  doctrines 
which  grow  out  of  it,  doctrines  confessedly  at 
variance  with  the  mind  and  will  of  the  flesh,  it  is 
not  to  be  supposed  that  an  inquirer  is  favourably 
biased  in  his  examination  of  the  fact,  when  he  does 
but  avail  himself  of  all  the  lights  within  his  reach, 
and  proceeds  with  a  beating  heart  and  docile  mind 
to  the  place  where  they  sepulchred  the  body  of  the 
Crucified ! 

We  do  not  prejudge  a  case  when  we  but  take  into 
consideration  what  is  essential  to  a  right  judgment. 
We  are  not  disqualified  ourselves  from  judging  of 
a  fact,  when  we  have  but  ascertained  whether  there 
was  any  probability  of  such  an  act. 

A  presumptive  argument,  though  by  no  means 
conclusive,  is  always  desirable ;  in  some  instances, 
it  is  indispensable  ;  and  in  this,  the  want  of  it,  were 
fatal  to  belief  in  the  alleged  fact. 

But  as,  in  canvassing  the  probability  of  a  revela- 
tion from  God,  we  must  take  into  consideration  his 
perfections  as  discerned  through  his  works,  and 
man's  wants  as  developed  in  consciousness,  so  is  it 


PRESUMPTIVE  PROOFS  OF  THE  RESURRECTION.     45 

necessary  in  considering  the  question  whether 
Christ  rose  from  the  dead,  to  have  some  knowledge 
of  his  character  and  doings;  of  his  life,  and  of  his 
death:  yea,  also,  and  of  what  man  is  by  nature, 
and  of  what  man  needs,  but  what  by  nature  he  can 
never  reach. 

It  was  no  question  of  trivial  or  transient  interest 
how  that  sealed  and  guarded  sepulchre  was  rifled 
of  death's  treasure!  The  hopes  and  fears  of  men 
to  the  latest  time  are  all  involved  in  its  solution: 
not  simply  because  the  body  that  was  so  securely 
laid  there  can  no  where  be  found,  but  because  the 
world  had  never  before  seen  such  a  man :  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  who  was  crucified,  dead  and  entombed! 

Had  he  not  been  The  Man  among  men,  as  he  is 
represented  to  have  been  by  his  contempora- 
ries, this  story  of  his  resurrection  might  be  philo- 
sophically classed  with  the  myths  and  fables  of 
heathen  mythology.  Viewed  apart  from  the  tenor 
of  his  teachings,  the  significance  of  his  works,  and 
the  sinless  perfection  of  his  character,  his  predic- 
tion was  presumptuous;  and  separate  from  the  na- 
ture and  design  of  his  death,  his  resurrection  was 
uncalled  for,  and  could  have  been  of  no  more  sig- 
nificancy  to  us,  no  more  worthy  of  credence,  than 
the  reported  resurrection  of  any  other  man  would 
have  been. 

Hence,  in  their  assaults  on  Christianity,  men 
usually  begin  by  questioning  the  divinity  of  Christ: 
then,  they  doubt  his  atonement;   and  afterwards 


46  THE    KESUKRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

pervert  his  sayings,  and  explain  away  his  doings, 
until  at  last  they  are  prepared  to  look  upon  him 
as  but  a  man,  having  no  higher  relation  to  the  age 
in  which  he  lived  than  they  themselves  bear  to  this. 

As  such,  however,  there  was  no  more  reason  for 
his  being  raised  from  the  dead  than  in  the  case  of 
any  preceding  prophet;  and  there  was  no  purpose 
to  be  answered  by  his  resurrection  that  might  not 
have  been  accomplished  by  any  of  his  previous 
works:  for,  if  such  a  miracle  as  he  performed  at 
the  grave  of  Lazarus  was  not  sufficient  to  attest 
the  truth  of  his  doctrines,  his  rising  from  his  own 
grave  would  carry  no  more  conviction  to  those  who 
had  not  then  believed. 

If  he  rose,  therefore,  it  must  have  been  for  a 
higher  purpose  than  could  have  been  answered  by 
either  the  acts  of  his  life,  or  the  passive  sufferings 
of  his  death:  to  wit,  that  he  might  be  ''declared  to 
be  the  Son  of  God  with  power,"  and  might  pro- 
claim to  the  heirs  of  a  fallen  humanity  the  joyful 
tidings  of  expiated  sin  through  faith  in  that  blood 
that  was  shed  upon  the  cross. 

As  there  was  no  necessity  for  his  incarnation 
unless  Christ  came  to  do  what  no  mere  man  could 
have  been  rendered  competent  to  do;  so,  if  he  was 
not  "delivered  for  our  offences,"  all  the  ends  of 
his  mission  could  have  been  answered  without  his 
resurrection. 

We  should  have  had  the  same  true  sayings  of 
God,  the  same  code  of  morals,  the  same  parabolic 


PRESUMPTIVE  PROOFS  OF  THE  RESURRECTION.     47 

representations,  tlie  same  prophetic  intimations  of 
future  judgment,  the  same  example  of  patience  and 
resignation,  of  purity  and  love,  the  same  lesson  of 
self-sacrifice ;  and  in  the  miracles  which  he  wrought, 
the  same  assurance  that  God  could  raise  us  up  at 
the  last  day :  in  a  word  the  same  revelation  of  the 
Fatherhood  of  God,  and  of  the  responsibility  and 
immortality  of  the  soul,  but  not  the  same  evidence 
that  he  himself  was  "the  Son  of  God,"  and  much 
less  "the  Lamb  of  God." 

He  might  still  have  been  regarded,  and  justly  so, 
as  the  greatest  of  prophets — the  most  heroic  of 
martyrs;  and  his  memory  been  still  cherished  in 
the  hearts  of  the  good;  but  who  could  have  be- 
lieved that  he  died  a  sacrifice  for  sin?  Who  could 
have  looked  for  deliverance  from  the  curse  of  the 
law,  if  he  who  offered  up  his  life  on  Calvary  had 
continued  under  the  power  of  death,  himself  the 
conquered  instead  of  the  conqueror?  Where  would 
have  been  the  evidence  that  God  had  accepted  his 
sacrifice,  or  that  we,  through  him,  could  obtain 
eternal  life?  Must  not  the  Jew  have  been  con- 
firmed in  his  unbelief;  and  his  disciples  all  been 
scattered,  never  again  to  be  gathered  in  faith  and 
hope  around  their  crucified  Master?  Most  conclu- 
sively reasoned  the  apostle  when  he  said,  "If 
Christ  be  not  risen  then  is  our  preaching  vain ;  and 
your  faith  is  also  vain;  ye  are  yet  in  your  sins."* 

The  logical  connection  which  subsists  between 

*  1  Cor.  XV.  14. 


48  THE    RESURRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

the  mysterious  constitution  of  his  person,  and  the 
end  of  his  resurrection  is  as  obvious  to  us  as  it  was 
to  the  Jewish  rulers,  that  if  he  should  indeed  rise 
from  the  grave  they  would  stand  convicted  of  hav- 
ing murdered  the  Son  of  God ;  and  hence  the  mir- 
acle of  his  resurrection  has  been  disputed  by  those 
who  have  been  unwilling  to  recognize  in  his  won- 
drous pathway  through  Judea,  the  foot-prints  of  a 
God  in  human  form;  while  they  who  admit  the  fact 
of  his  resurrection,  and  yet  deny  his  Incarnate  Di- 
vinity, act  inconsistently  with  their  own  principle 
that  he  was  sent  into  the  world  merely  to  announce 
a  clearer  revelation  of  the  mind  and  will  of  God; 
inconsistently,  also,  with  the  apostles'  adoring 
views  of  Christ,  on  whose  testimony  to  the  fact 
itself  they  must  of  course  rely,  if  they  believe  that 
he  was  raised  from  the  dead. 

But  whatever  presumptive  arguments  in  favour 
of  his  having  risen  from  the  sepulchre  on  the  day 
which  he  had  specified,  may  be  now  gathered  from 
pondering  the  records  of  his  history  in  the  light  of 
ancient  prophecy,  and  with  the  aid  of  inspired 
commentators,  no  such  advantage  had  the  disciples 
at  the  time  of  his  death.  Not  that  none  such  ex- 
isted; not  that  Christ  had  not  duly  instructed 
them,  and  even  told  them  what  was  before  them  as 
well  as  himself;  not  that  they  had  failed  to  see  in 
him  all  the  radiant  evidences  of  the  Messiah  of 
their  prophecies;  but  that  in  accordance  with  the 
notions  of  their  age  they  had  mistaken  the  nature 


PRESUMPTIVE  PROOFS  OF  THE  RESURRECTION.     49 

of  his  kingdom;  and,  owing  to  their  consternation 
and  distress  when  Christ  was  so  maltreated,  that 
they  could  not  calmly  reflect  on  the  import  of  his 
words. 

Men,  thrown  as  they  were,  and  that  suddenly, 
into  the  midst  of  a  frantic  rabble,  seeing  their 
blessed  Master  stretched  on  the  cross,  and  knowing 
not  how  soon  they  themselves  might  be  arrested 
and  arraigned  before  the  same  unjust  tribunal, 
could  not  have  been  cheered  even  by  their  own  rec- 
ollections of  Christ's  words  which  the  rulers  had 
employed  to  justify  themselves  in  putting  him  to 
death. 

Even  at  the  present  day,  men,  through  fear  of 
personal  difficulties,  often  lose  sight  of  principles, 
and  under  the  influence  of  preconceived  views,  mis- 
interpret the  plainest  words  of  Scripture. 

Though  we  may  understand  the  import  of  Christ's 
prediction,  it  is  not  strange  that  the  disciples  did 
not.  Though  it  is  essential  that  we  should  under- 
stand who  it  was  that  uttered  such  a  prediction, 
that  we  may  be  competent  to  judge  whether  its  ful- 
filment was  at  all  probable,  yet  as  the  disciples  un- 
derstood it  not,  it  is  certain  that  they  could  not 
have  ascribed  to  Christ  so  extraordinary  a  predic- 
tion, had  he  not  uttered  it,  or  they  would  not  have 
recorded  their  own  stupidity  and  despondence: 
and  it  is  certain  that  they  could  not  have  originated 
an  unfounded  report  of  his  having  risen,  when,  if 
they  did  not  understand  his  prediction,  they  could 

5 


50  THE    RESUKIIECTION    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 

not  have  been  expecting  him  to  rise;  much  less 
would  they  have  told  the  world  that,  though  they, 
his  professed  followers,  had  lost  sight  of  their  Mas- 
ter's words,  his  enemies  remembered  them,  while 
the  fact  that  some  of  their  rulers  guarded  the  sep- 
ulchre because  they  thought  that  the  disciples 
might  remember  and  take  advantage  of  this  predic- 
tion, shows  clearly  that  it  was  not  a  shrewd  after- 
thought of  the  disciples  to  secure  credence  to  the 
report  that  Christ  had  risen. 

But  if  a  person  who  had  so  lived  and  so  died  as 
Christ  had  done,  should  rise  from  the  grave,  it  may 
reasonably  be  supposed  that,  while  the  event  itself 
would  be  attended  with  no  ordinary  phenomena,  he 
himself  would  demonstrate  his  identity  in  ways, 
and  by  means,  which  could  leave  no  doubt  in  the 
minds  of  his  disciples  as  to  the  fact  itself:  that  he 
would  come  to  them  as  he  had  been  wont,  accost 
them  in  familiar  tones,  hush  their  fears,  animate 
their  courage,  clear  up  their  darkened  apprehen- 
sions, enlighten  them  in  all  things  pertaining  to 
his  kingdom,  and  qualify  them  to  carry  on  the 
work  which  he  had  consecrated  by  his  blood,  and 
attested  by  his  resurrection. 

But  whatever  may  have  been  his  character,  and 
his  works,  we  need  something  more  than  mere  pre- 
sumptions before  we  can  believe  that  he  rose  from 
the  dead:  nothing  less  than  facts  which  cannot  be 
disproved;  and  arguments  which  will  admit  of  not 
even  a  plausible  refutation. 


PRESUMPTIVE  PROOFS  OF  THE  RESURRECTION.  51 

We  shall  not,  we  cannot  believe  it:  it  is  too 
marvellous,  £ts  indeed  everything  about  this  same 
Jesus  is,  to  be  accredited,  unless  attested  by  evi- 
dence which  cannot  be  mistaken;  unless  accompa- 
nied by  signs  which  cannot  be  logically  explained 
on  any  ground  save  that  of  the  miraculous  fact  it- 
self; which  must  be  unanswerably  conclusive  as  to 
the  fact,  unless  there  is  nothing  in  history,  no  one 
worthy  of  trust,  and  no  man  who  can  confide  either 
in  his  neighbour's  testimony,  or  in  his  own  senses. 


52  THE    HESUllilECTli»x\    OF    JESUS    CIUIIST. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

POSITIVE  EVinENCE. 

Our  blessed  Lord  did  not  come  forth  from  the 
sepulchre  in  the  presence  of  an  assembled  multi- 
tude. Had  it  been  so  stated,  it  would  not  have 
been  in  unison  with  that  studious  avoidance  of  un- 
necessary publicity  which  had  marked  his  '^diole 
life ;  while  it  would  have  betrayed  in  the  narrators 
of  the  event  a  leaning  to  stage  effect;  and  thus, 
instead  of  being  invested  with  a  mysterious  sublim- 
ity— as  it  now  is,  the  event  would  have  been  brought 
down  to  the  level  of  some  earth-born  marvel,  such 
as  the  heathen  were  fond  of  representing,  or  as 
ghostly  jugglery  has  been  known  to  contrive. 

But  when  he  rose  from  the  dead,  no  human  eye 
saw  him,  not  even  the  soldiers  who  had  been  sta- 
tioned before  the  sepulchre  to  watch  the  remains 
of  that  solitary  death-sleeper  within  its  portals: 
for  -when  they  felt  the  earth  quake,  and  saw  the 
angel,  regardless  alike  of  them  and  of  the  seal,  in- 
stantly remove  the  great  stone  barrier,  and  sit 
thereon,  they  "became  as  dead  men."* 

Their  flight,  therefore,  was  consequent  on  their 
fright;  and  hence,  though  they  told  the  rulers  of 

*  Matthew  xxvii.  4. 


POSITIVE    EVIDENCE.  53 

what  had  happened,  yet  as  they  had  seen  no  one 
but  the  angel,  and  knew  not  what  had  become  of 
the  body,  they  were  the  more  easily  induced  to 
adopt  the  explanation,  and  gratify  the  wishes  of 
those  whom  they  knew  might  at  any  moment  arrest 
them  for  having  deserted  their  post. 

But  the  women  who  lingered  so  late  at  the  sepul- 
chre, and  who  had  continued  in  their  work  of  prepar- 
ing to  embalm  the  body  until  the  shades  of  the  Sab- 
batic eve  began  to  gather  around  them,  could  have 
had  no  knowledge  of  the  appointment  of  a  guard, 
or  of  the  sealing  of  the  great  stone. 

This  was  the  work  of  the  priests  and  rulers, 
done,  too,  on  the  very  day  which  they  had  so  loudly 
professed  to  reverence;  but  the  women,  we  are  told, 
"rested  according  to  the  commandment:"*  and 
hence,  as  the  Marys,  together  with  Salome,  whom 
they  either  met  or  called  to  go  with  them  at  the 
earliest  dawn  of  the  third  day,  were  hastening  to 
the  sepulchre,  and  probably  that  they  might  embalm 
the  body  before  any  others  could  reach  that  spot  to 
perform  the  last  office  of  bereaved  affection,  their 
only  apprehension  was  that  they  might  not  be  able 
to  remove  the  stone  which,  according  to  their  rec- 
ollection, "was  very  great;"  for  they  had  seen  it 
placed  there,  and  it  was  the  last  object  on  which 
their  eye  had  rested:  thus  "saying  among  them- 
selves. Who  shall  roll  us  away  the  stone  from  the 
door  of  the  sepulchre  ?"t 

*  Luke  xxiii.  56.  f  Mark  xvi.  3. 

5  * 


54  THE    RESURRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

Imagine  their  surprise  and  fear,  when,  as  they 
drew  nigh  the  sepulchre,  "at  the  rising  of  the 
sun,"  they  perceived  "that  the  stone  was  already 
rolled  away  !"* 

It  was  but  natural  for  one  of  Mary  Magdalene's 
temperament  to  conclude  that  the  body  was  stolen ; 
and  it  is  not  improbable  that  she  turned  back  and 
hastened  to  tell  Peter  and  "  that  other  disciple  " 
what  had  happened :  that  "  they  had  taken  away 
the  Lord  out  of  the  sepulchre,  "f 

But  the  other  Mary  and  Salome,  we  may  sup- 
pose, went  on,  and  finding  no  obstruction  at  the 
entrance,  were  just  entering  the  sepulchre,  when 
they  were  affrighted  by  the  sight  of  "  a  young  man 
sitting  on  the  right  side,  clothed  in  a  long  white 
garment  :"i  probably  the  same  angel  that  had  sat 
on  the  great  stone,  and  frightened  away  the  keep- 
ers, who,  anticipating  the  object  of  their  visit,  said 
unto  them,  "  Ye  seek  Jesus  of  Nazareth  who  was 
crucified :  he  is  not  here,  for  he  is  risen,  as  he  said. 
But  go  your  way ;  tell  his  disciples,  and  Peter, 
that  he  goeth  before  you  into  Galilee :  there  shall 
ye  see  him,  as  he  said  unto  you."§ 

Amazed  and  trembling  "  they  went  out  quickly 
and  fled  from  the  sepulchre  ;"  too  agitated  by  con- 
flicting emotions  "to  say  anything  to  any  man."|| 

Joanna,  who  might  have  come  in  the  moment 
after  they  left,  anticipated  no  difficulty  in  removing 

*  Mark  xvi.  2-3.  t  ^^^^  ^x.  2.  J  Mark  xvi.  5-6. 

§  Matt,  xxviii.  6-6.  Il  Mark  xvi.  8. 


POSITIVE    EVIDENCE.  55 

the  stone,  as  she  was  accompanied  by  other  women  ; 
and  might  have  expected,  according  to  an  agree- 
ment made  between  them  on  the  eve  of  the  Sab- 
bath, to  meet  there  both  Salome  and  the  Marys. 
She,  however,  saw  that  the  stone  was  rolled  away, 
and  that  the  body  was  not  in  the  sepulchre.  But 
neither  she  nor  either  of  her  companions  saw  the 
angel  where  he  was  seen  by  those  who  had  pre- 
ceded them. 

-  Yet  while  they  were  wrapped  in  amazement, 
"  Behold  two  men  stood  by  them  in  shining  gar- 
ments ;  and  as  they  were  afraid,  and  bowed  their 
faces  to  the  earth,  they  said  unto  them.  Why  seek 
ye  the  living  among  the  dead  ?  He  is  not  here, 
but  is  risen :  remember  how  he  spake  unto  you 
while  he  was  yet  in  Galilee ;  saying.  The  Son  of 
Man  must  be  delivered  into  the  hands  of  sinful 
men,  and  be  crucified,  and  the  third  day  rise  again." 
And  they,  it  appears,  remembered  his  word,  and 
retiring  from  the  sepulchre  communicated  these 
things  to  the  disciples.* 

No  sooner  had  they  gone,  than  John  came,  fol- 
lowed by  Peter  whom  he  had  ''  outrun,"  so  greatly 
had  their  apprehensions  been  excited  by  what  Mary 
had  told  them. 

But  though  John  stooped  down,  and  "  looking 
in  saw  the  linen  clothes,  yet  went  he  not  in  "  until 
Peter  had  gone  in,  and  had  seen  "the  linen  clothes 
and  the  napkin  that  was  about  his  head,  not  lying 

*  Luke  xxiii.  56  ;  xxiv.  1-9. 


56  THE    RESURRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

with  the  linen  clothes,  but  wrapped  together  in  a 
place  by  itself."* 

There  was  then  no  angel  visible,  and  no  Divine 
communication  heard ;  and  though  Peter  "  won- 
dered in  himself  at  that  which  was  come  to  pass,"t 
it  seems  that  neither  he  nor  the  other  apostles  at 
that  time  knew  the  import  of  the  Scripture  that 
Christ  must  rise  from  the  dead.J 

But  with  an  interest  how  unutferable  must  "that 
other  disciple  "  have  awaited  the  result  of  Peter's 
examination  of  the  sepulchre ;  and  with  what  sen- 
timents of  revived  confidence  in  his  blessed  Lord's 
prediction,  must  he  afterwards  have  gone  himself 
into  the  sepulchre,  for  when  he  went  in,  lie  saw  and 
believed. 

Thus  he  was  the  first  that  ever  believed  in  a 
risen  but  unseen  Saviour :  the  prototype  of  evan- 
gelical faith,  faith  in  Him  "  whom  though  now  we 
see  him  not,  yet  believing  we  rejoice  with  joy  un- 
speakable, and  full  of  glory." 

Such  a  circumstance  could  hardly  have  been  ac- 
cidental ;  nor  would  it  have  occurred  to  a  forger 
of  the  visits  to  the  sepulchre  to  represent  John  as 
the  first  to  believe  ;  and  this  too  before  the  women, 
who,  though  they  had  not  seen  Jesus,  had  been 
expressly  told  by  an  angel  that  Christ  was  risen. 

But  it  was  John  that  believed  when  he  saw  in 
the  careful  disposition  of  the  grave-clothes  in  which 
Jesus  had  been  shrouded   sufficient   proof  to  his 

*  John  XX.  3-7.         f  Luke  xxiv.  12.         %  John  xx.  8,  9. 


POSITIVE    EVIDENCE.  57 

mind  that  the  body  had  not  been  stolen  or  taken 
away:  John,  "that  other  disciple,"  who  at  the 
"  last  supper  "  had  leaned  on  Jesus'  bosom ;  to 
whose  care  Jesus,  while  hanging  on  the  cross,  had 
committed  his  weeping  mother  ;  who  had  taken  her 
to  his  own  home,  that  she  might  not  witness  her 
son's  expiring  agonies ;  and  if  either  of  the  disci- 
ples on  recovering  from  the  shock  of  the  crucifixion 
should  have  been  the  first  to  recollect  what  Christ 
had  said,  ''After  three  days  I  will  rise  again," 
surely  it  was  he,  the  loved  and  loving  disciple  ! 

But  there  is  a  special  message  yet  to  be  deliv- 
ered to  Peter,  who  was  particularly  named  in  the 
communication  which  the  angel  made  to  Mary  and 
Salome ;  and  probably  because  it  was  this  disciple 
who  had  so  flagrantly  denied  his  Master. 

Neither  of  these  disciples,  however,  lingered  at 
the  sepulchre :  "they  went  away  again  into  their 
own  home."* 

And  now  Mary,  who  had  previously  informed 
both  John  and  Peter  of  what  had  happened,  and 
who  of  course  had  not  been  able  to  equal  their 
speed,  reaches  the  sepulchre ;  and  she  "  stands 
without  at  the  sepulchre,  weeping."  If  the  body 
has  been  taken  away,  she  will  sift  the  matter  for 
herself,  and  water  the  place  where  he  had  lain  with 
her  tears. 

But  lo  !  as  "she  stooped  down,  and  looked  into 
the  sepulchre,  she  saw  two  angels  in  white,  sitting 

*  John  XX.  10. 


58  THE    RESUERECTION    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 

the  one  at  the  head,  and  the  other  at  the  feet,  where 
the  body  of  Jesus  had  lain."  They  asked  her, 
Why  she  wept  ?  "  Because,"  said  she,  "they  have 
taken  away  my  Lord,  and  I  know  not  where  they 
have  laid  him." 

Her  grief  was  too  deep  to  admit  of  her  being 
frightened  as  the  other  women  had  been  when  they 
saw  and  heard  "the  angel;"  but  like  one  absorbed 
in  the  object  of  her  search,  she  turned  away  to  look 
elsewhere  ;  and  seeing  a  person  whom  she  supposed 
to  be  the  gardener,  for  the  sepulchre  was  in  a  gar- 
den, "  She  said  unto  him.  Sir,  if  thou  have  borne 
him  hence,  tell  me  where  thou  hast  laid  him,  and 
I  will  take  him  away." 

The  keeper  of  the  garden,  she  thought,  must 
needs  know  something  about  the  removal  of  the 
body  ;  and  in  this  state  of  mind,  it  is  not  surpris- 
ing that  she  should  not  have  recognized  in  him  who 
stood  before  her  the  risen  Jesus  ! 

But  when  Jesus  spoke  again,  and  simply  called 
her  by  name,  it  was  as  if  a  blaze  of  light  had  burst 
upon  her  vision,  and  a  stream  of  joy  overflowed  her 
heart. 

'^  Rahhoni F'  was  all  she  could  utter.  But  that 
exclamation  more  truly  than  words  could  have  ex- 
pressed it,  betokened  her  most  unexpected  recog- 
nition of  him  whose  body  she  would  have  embalmed : 
her  instantaneous  faith,  her  holy  love,  and  pure 
devotion ;  and  with  what  glowing  sentiments  of 
hope  revived  she  would  have  detailed  to  him  her 


POSITIVE    EVIDENCE.  59 

settled  conviction  that  her  eye  and  ear  had  not  de- 
ceived her,  may  be  inferred  from  his  reply :  "  Touch 
me  not,  for  I  have  not  yet  ascended  to  my  Father.* 

■-■•  John  XX.  17.  It  is  unnecessary  in  this  connection  to  advert  to 
any  of  the  numerous  explanations  which  have  been  suggested  by 
different  biblical  critics.  Even  scholarly  minds  must  differ  in  rela- 
tion to  this  passage  if  they  proceed  on  the  supposition  that  there  is 
some  mystical  meaning  in  Christ's  words  on  the  occasion,  or  that 
his  resurrection  body  was  not  sensible  to  touch :  or  that  it  is  neces- 
sary to  harmonize  their  explanations  with  some  theological  precon- 
ception. But  whether  the  Greek  text  in  its  grammatical  construc- 
tion should  be  strictly  adhered  to  ,•  or  whether  it  will  admit  of  a 
tropical  interpretation  in  consistency  with  reason,  comes  not  now 
within  our  province  to  inquire.  In  weighing  the  proofs  of  the  res- 
urrection, it  is  sufficient  to  view  the  text  simply  in  its  obvious  con- 
nections ;  and  especially,  if  it  can  be  made  to  appear  that  it  does 
not  conflict  with  the  record  of  Christ's  interviews  with  any  other  of 
his  disciples,  and  much  less  with  his  instructions  to  them  immedi- 
ately previous  to  his  death. 

It  was  but  natural  for  one  who  had  so  bitterly  mourned  his  cruel 
death,  and  so  anxiously  awaited  the  dawn  of  the  third  day  after  his 
burial  to  embalm  the  body,  to  be  transported  with  wonder  and  de- 
light on  so  unexpectedly  meeting  Jesus  in  the  garden  :  just  as  it  was 
natural  for  the  other  Mary  and  Salome,  who,  though  they  ran  from 
the  sepulchre  with  a  design  to  tell  the  disciples  what  they  had  seen 
and  heard,  as  the  angel  had  ordered  them,  to  be  so  agitated  in  con- 
sequence of  the  fright  into  which  they  had  been  thrown  as  to  neglect 
to  deliver  the  message  to  some  (probably  John  and  Peter*)  whom 
they  saw  on  their  way  ;  and  when  Jesus  met  them  in  the  way, — to 
cast  themselves  at  his  feet  in  speechless  awe  of  his  resurrection- 
presence  !  But  as  Jesus  said  to  them  "  be  not  afraid,"  so,  in  adapt- 
ation to  Mary's  state  of  mind — absorbed  as  she  was  in  the  one 
blessed  thought  of  having  found  her  buried  and  lost  Kabboni,  and 
yet  believing  not  for  joy, — he  said  unto  her,  M^ //ou  utttov,  "Touch 
me  not :"  there  will  be  other  opportunities  of  seeing  me,  and  testing 
the  fact  of  my  resurrection ;  for  I  go  not  yet  to  the  Father  :  lose  no 
time  then ;  but  go,  and  tell  my  brethren  that  I  am  shortly  to  ascend 
unto  my  Father  and  your  Father — to  my  God,  and  your  God. 
*  Mark  xvi.  6,  7,  9 :  John  xx.  4. 


60  THE    RESTJRKECTION    OF   JESUS    CIIRTST. 

Thus,  though  John  was  the  first  to  believe  in  the 
risen  Jesus,  Mary  Magdalene  was  the  first  to  whom 

In  appearing  to  the  other  Mary  and  Salome,  his  object  seems  to 
have  been  to  relieve  their  minds  of  all  fear  so  as  to  prevent  their 
forgetting  or  neglecting  to  carry  their  important  message  from  the 
angel  to  the  disciples ;  and  to  this  end  he  adopted  the  most  suitable 
means:  graciously  saluting  them;  calming  their  fears;  dispelling 
their  doubts ;  permitting  them  to  "  hold  him  by  the  feet,"  and  to 
worship  him;  and  in  confirmation  of  what  the  angel  had  said  to 
them,  bidding  them  to  go  and  tell  his  disciples  from  him  that  they 
should  see  him  in  Galilee.  So  to  convince  a  disciple  who,  in  the 
extremity  of  his  grief,  had  abandoned  his  mind  to  the  most  hopeless 
skepticism,  he  showed  him  his  hands  and  his  side ;  and  said  to  him : 
"  Reach  hither  thy  finger,  and  behold  my  hands;  and  reach  hither 
thy  hand,  and  thrust  it  into  my  side ;  and  be  not  faithless  but  be- 
lieving." But  his  object  in  so  doing  was  to  make  him  a  faithful 
and  self-sacrificing  witness  of  the  resurrection — an  Ajyostle. 

Thus,  if  we  overlook  not  his  object  in  making  himself  known  to 
Mary,  there  will  be  no  difficulty,  we  apprehend,  in  ascertaining  the 
drift  of  this  passage  :  it  was  not  only  to  disabuse  her  mind  of  the 
erroneous  impression  that  his  death,  as  in  the  case  of  any  mere  man, 
was  his  final  departure  from  the  world ;  but  that  through  her — as 
the  bearer  of  his  message  to  the  disciples,  they  might  be  in  some 
degree  prepared  to  meet  him  : — the  peculiar  terms  in  which  his  mes- 
sage was  couched  being  so  well  adapted  to  preclude  the  idea  that 
Mary  had  seen  the  spirit  of  Jesus,  instead  of  Jesus  in  person,  and 
consequently  to  recall  to  their  minds  the  promise  which  he  had 
made  to  them  on  the  eve  of  his  betrayal — of  coming  to  them  again 
before  he  should  finally  retire  from  their  sight.  "  A  little  while,  and 
ye  shall  not  see  me ;  and  again  a  little  while,  and  ye  shall  see  me 
because  I  go  to  the  Father."  (John  xvi.  16.)  "I  am  come  forth 
from  the  Father,  and  come  into  the  world ;  and  again  I  leave  the 
world,  and  go  to  the  Father."  (John  xvi.  28.)  Thus  teaching  them 
that  his  resurrection  was  but  the  harbinger  of  his  ascension ;  his 
glorification  no  less  essential  to  his  nature  and  office  than  his  resur- 
rection ;  and  that  on  his  return  to  his  Father,  all  the  gracious  prom- 
ises which  he  had  made  to  them  before  his  passion  would  be  fulfilled. 
See  John  xiv.  Indeed,  it  is  from  the  tenor  of  this  message  to  the 
disciples  that,   independently  of  the  record,  we  might  argue  the 


POSITIVE    EVIDENCE.  61 

the  risen  Jesus  appeared.  Hers  is  the  first  name 
that  he  pronounced  after  his  resurrection ;  and  she 
is  the  first  to  behold  the  risen  Jesus  ;  for  in  ready 
and  joyous  obedience  to  his  command,  she  forthwith 
departed  from  the  sepulchre,  and  "  told  the  disci- 
ples that  she  had  seen  the  Lord^  and  that  he  had 
spoken  these  things  unto  her."* 

The  next  witnesses  of  the  fact  were  probably  the 
"other  Mary,"  and  Salome  whom  Jesus  might  have 
met  in  some  retired  spot,  where,  it  is  supposable, 
they  had  halted  for  a  moment  to  recover  from  the 
effects  of  their  speechless  fright;  and  who  said 
unto  them,  "  All  hail !  Be  not  afraid :  go  tell 
my  brethren  that  they  go  into  Galilee,  and  there 
shall  they  see  me."t 

The  next  in  order  is  Peter.  In  consequence  of 
what  Joanna  had  related,  and  more  particularly  of 
what  Salome  and  the  Marys  had  said,  that  the 
Lord  had  appeared  to  them,  he  ran  again  to  the 
sepulchre.! 

But  though  the  grave-clothes  were  still  lying 
there  as  he  had  seen  them  before,  he  himself  was 
accosted  by  no  angel,  nor  did  he  see  Jesus.  Thus 
his  second  visit  to  the  sepulchre  was  attended  with 
no  more  relief  of  mind  than  the  first :  he  goes  away 

probability  of  his  having  appeared  first  to  Mary ;  and  though  some 
of  our  contemporaries  seem  to  adopt  Dr.  Robinson's  harmony,  we 
see  no  good  reason  for  supposing  that  Christ's  appearance  to  the 
other  Mary  and  Salome  was  prior  to  his  appearance  to  Mary  at  the 
garden. 

*  John  XX.  11-18.      t  Matt,  xxviii.  9-10.       %  Luke  xxiv.  12. 


62  THE    RESUREECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

with  the  same  throbbing  heart — the  same  perplexed 
and  anguished  thoughts. 

Yet  shortly  after  this,  while  he  was  all  alone, 
and  pondering  more  deeply  what  had  come  to  pass, 
he  was  favoured  by  a  visit  from  the  risen  Jesus ; 
and  thus  became  the  first  apostolic  eye-witness  to 
the  fact  of  Christ's  resurrection.* 

It  is  certain,  according  to  the  apostle  Paul,  that 
he  was  seen  by  Cephas  before  any  of  the  other 
apostles  saw  him  ;  and  to  this  end  it  was  that  Christ 
had  previously  said  to  him  :  "  Thou  art  Peter,  and 
upon  this  rock  I  build  my  church,"  to  this  end 
also,  that  the  angel  had  directed  the  women  to  tell 
Mm  in  particular  that  Christ  had  risen,  and  that 
he  was  afterwards  the  first  to  proclaim  the  gospel 
to  the  Gentiles. 

Peter's  second  visit  to  the  sepulchre,  though  it 
is  still  early,  was  probably  the  last  that  was  made 
by  any  of  the  disciples.  There  is  now  no  further 
occasion  for  going  there.  The  body  is  no  longer 
where  it  was  laid ;  and  strange  reports  are  in  cir- 
culation :  that  angels  have  spoken  to  the  women ; 
that  the  Marys  and  Salome  have  seen  the  Lord, 
and  that  he  has  at  last  appeared  to  Peter. 

Those  two  disciples  who  are  on  their  way  home 
to  Emmaus  have  heard  some  of  the  reports  ;  and 
while  they  are  in  great  perplexity  of  mind,  Jesus 
joins  them,  and  makes  himself  known  to  them  in 
a  most  convincing  manner,  having  "  expounded  unto 

*  Luke  xxiv.  34;  1  Cor.  xv.  5. 


POSITIVE    EVIDENCE.  06 

them  in  all  the  Scriptures  the  things  concerning 
himself,"  and  as  he  sat  at  meat  with  them,  having 
taken  bread,  and  blessed  it,  and  broken  it,  and 
given  it  to  them,  so  that  '^  their  eyes  were  opened, 
and  they  knew  him,  and  he  vanished  out  of  their 
sight."* 

In  the  meantime,  the  other  disciples,  though  they 
have  no  doubt  that  the  sepulchre  is  empty,  are  all, 
with  the  single  exception  of  John,  most  painfully 
embarrassed  in  their  judgments.  They  have  re- 
ceived the  angelic  messages  as  sent  to  them  by  the 
women.  Mary  Magdalene  has  told  them  that  she 
has  actually  seen  Jesus,  and  with  beaming  eyes  of 
joy  has  delivered  his  express  message  to  them : 
her  statement  is  confirmed  by  that  of  the  other 
Mary  and  Salome ;  but  all  is  to  them  "  as  idle 
tales."  The  additional  testimony  of  Peter,  who 
has  now  come  in,  does  not  convince  them :  even 
that  of  "  the  two  disciples  "  who  returned  forthwith 
from  Emmaus  to  Jerusalem  to  tell  them,  "how 
Jesus  was  known  to  them  in  the  breaking  of  bread" 
does  not  dispel  their  doubts. f 

At  last,  and  probably  on  the  eve  of  the  same 
eventful  day,  while  they  were  earnestly  discussing 
the  matter  with  closed  doors,  Jesus  7«?92seZ/*  appeared 
in  the  midst  of  them. 

But  so  terrified  were  they  by  his  unexpected  and 

*■  Luke  xxiv.  13-32.  See  **  Responses  from  the  Sacred  Oracles," 
p.  367. 

t  Mark  xvi.  9-13. 


64  THE   RESURRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

inexplicable  appearance  to  them  that  they  could 
not  be  assured  that  he  was  not  a  spirit  until  he  told 
them  to  behold  him  steadfastly,  to  see  and  to  feel 
both  his  hands,  and  his  feet,  still  bearing  the  marks 
of  the  nails  which  had  pierced  them ;  and  to  con- 
firm their  faith,  not  only  did  he  eat  before  them, 
but  "  he  opened  the  Scriptures  to  them  "  as  he  had 
before  done  to  "the  two  disciples;"  and  finally 
breathed  upon  them :  thus  at  once  convincing  them 
of  his  living  personal  identity,  and  conferring  upon 
them  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

But  Thomas  was  not  then  with  the  disciples,  and 
it  is  in  vain  that  they  afterwards  attempt  to  con- 
vince him  that  Jesus  is  risen.  They  can  prove  that 
he  has  already  been  seen  five  times  ;  but  Thomas 
will  not  believe  unless  he  can  see  the  prints  of  the 
nails,  and  put  his  fingers  into  the  print  of  the  nails, 
and  thrust  his  hand  into  the  wounded  side  of  Him 
whom  he  knew  to  have  been  but  lately  crucified 
and  slain.* 

It  was  therefore  for  the  very  purpose  of  con- 
vincing this  disciple,  that  Jesus,  on  the  succeeding 
first  day  of  the  week,  appeared  to  the  Eleven  ;  and 
giving  to  Thomas,  whom  at  first  he  upbraided  for 
his  unbelief,  the  proofs  which  he  had  demanded, 
extorted  from  him  an  involuntary  tribute  to  his 
own  Divinity  :  ''My  Lord,  and  my  G-od!"f 

*  John  XX.  24-25.  See  also,  "  Religion  Teaching  by  Example," 
p.  371. 

t  John  XX.  26-28. 


POSITIVE    EVIDENCE.  65 

His  next  appearance  was  at  a  distance  of  about 
eighty  miles  from  Jerusalem,  in  Galilee,  whither  a 
number  of  the  disciples  had  gone  at  the  close  of  the 
feast,  and  where  in  accordance  with  the  promises 
which  had  been  made  to  them  both  before  and  after 
the  resurrection,  they  might  have  expected  to  see 
the  Lord. 

He  was  standing  on  the  shore  the  morning  after 
"  Simon  Peter,  and  Thomas,  and  Nathanael,  and 
the  sons  of  Zebedee,  and  two  other  of  his  disciples" 
had  been  all  the  previous  night  unsuccessfully  fish- 
ing ;  and  as  they  were  only  two  hundred  cubits 
from  the  land,  they  could  see  him,  and  hear  him 
speak.* 

At  his  suggestion,  they  cast  their  net  on  the 
right  side  of  the  ship,  and  soon  enclosed  a  multi- 
tude of  fishes,  so  that  they  were  not  able  to  draw 
it ;  and  yet  it  did  not  occur  to  them  that  it  was 
Jesus,  so  unexpected  was  the  time  and  manner  of 
his  appearance,  until  John  whispered  to  Peter, — 
"It  is  the  Lord!" 

How  characteristic  of  this  disciple  is  it  that  as 
soon  as  he  understood  who  it  was,  he  "  girt  his 
fisher's  coat  unto  him,  and  cast  himself  into  the 
sea:"  too  impulsive  to  wait  for  the  ship  which 
could  make  but  little  headway  while  the  disciples 
were  "  dragging  the  net  with  fishes." 

On  reaching  the  land,  they  saw  "  a  fire  of  coals, 
and  fish  laid  thereon  and  bread;"  and  at  Christ's 

*  Johnxxi.  1-8  J  ib.  9-11. 
6  * 


6o  THE    llESUllllECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

bidding,  Peter  by  himself  drew  the  net  to  land ; 
nor  was  the  net  broken,  thoughit  "was  fullof  great 
fishes,  an  hundred,  and  fifty,  and  three." 

Jesus  then  invited  them  to  "come  and  dine" 
with  him  ;  and  though  they  knew  that  it  must  be 
Jesus,  that  no  one  but  he  could  have  wrought  the 
miracle ;  yet  none  of  them  could  venture  to  ask 
him.  Who  art  thou  ?  so  overawed  were  they  ! — as 
indeed  it  was  but  natural  they  should  have  been, 
considering  the  miraculous  draft  of  fishes  wdiich 
they  had  witnessed,  and  finding  themselves  on  the 
lonely  shore  of  Tiberias  thus  unexpectedly  brought 
into  the  presence  of  him  whom  they  had  seen  so 
recently  crucified  on  Calvary,  and  consigned  in 
death  to  the  rock-ribbed  sepulchre. 

This  was  the  third  time  that  Jesus  made  himself 
known  to  the  body  of  the  apostles ;  and  what  a 
favourable  opportunity  was  that,  as  on  the  quiet 
shore  of  that  beautiful  lake  they  partook  with  him 
of  the  meal  which  he  had  super  naturally  provided, 
to  give  to  them  the  instructions  which  they  needed, 
and  to  prepare  them  for  the  work  to  which  he  had 
called  them. 

It  was  there  that  Jesus  addressed  himself  in  so 
striking  and  touching  a  manner  to  the  disciple  who 
had  denied  him ;  there,  that  his  allusion  to  the  be- 
loved disciple  gave  occasion  for  the  saying  among 
the  brethren  that  "  that  disciple  should  not 
die  ;"*  and  there,   that  on  parting  with  them,  he 

*■  John  xxi.  23. 


POSITIVE    EVIDENCE.  6T 

probably  gave  notice,  and  told  them  to  communi- 
cate the  intelligence  to  others  that,  agreeably  to  his 
promise,  he  would  meet  them  on  the  mountain  in 
Galilee.* 

It  was  in  Galilee  that  he  had  spent  the  most  of 
his  days  :  there  it  was  too,  that  his  divine  utterances 
had  been  so  often  heard :  there  the  greater  pro- 
portion of  his  followers  resided ;  and  this  might 
have  been  the  reason  for  selecting  a  mountain  in 
Galilee  as  the  most  convenient  place  for  a  numer- 
ous meeting.  And  thither  in  due  time  the  brethren 
repaired,  in  all  "  about  five  hundred,"  to  whom  he 
showed  himself  openly,  and  gave  ^'infallible  signs" 
of  his  resurrection. 

They  are  called  "brethren,"  because  they  were 
"  chosen  witnesses  ;"  and  Paul  says,  when  writing 
his  first  epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  that  though  some 
of  them  had  died,  the  greater  part  of  these  wit- 
nesses were  then  alive,  f 

He  also  states,  and  as  if  it  had  been  a  fact  well 
known,  that  after  this  meeting  in  Galilee  Jesus  ap- 
peared to  the  apostle  James.  J  But  this  is  a  point  of 
subordinate  moment,  especially  as  the  Evangelists 
have  recorded  no  conversation  between  the  risen 
Jesus  and  this  apostle. 

His  last  appearance  was  ''  to  all  the  apostles  " 
then  living,  Judas  having  "gone  to  his  own 
place :"    his  last  personal  interview  with  any  of 

«-  Matt,  xxviii.  16-17.        t  1  Cor.  sv.  6.        J  1  Cor.  xv.  7. 


68  THE    RESURRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

the  disciples  was  with  "  the  eleven,"*  and  with  none 
but  those  who  were  soon  to  commence  a  work  which 
should  not  cease  until  he  who  is  to  be  taken  up 
into  heaven,  shall  so  come  in  like  manner  as  they 
are  soon  to  see  him  go  into  heaven. 

Those  who  lived  in  Galilee  have  repaired  again  to 
Jerusalem  to  be  present  at  "  the  feast  of  weeks," — 
the  Pentecost ;  and  it  is,  we  may  suppose,  the 
fortieth  day  since  his  resurrection,  that  Jesus  now 
for  the  last  time  assembles  those  whom  he  had 
chosen  to  be  his  apostles. 

The  place  of  meeting  might  have  been,  and  pro- 
bably was,  where  Jesus  had  for  the  last  time  par- 
taken of  the  Passover  with  his  disciples  :  where  he 
had  also  broken  bread  for  them  to  eat,  and  handed 
the  cup  for  them  to  drink  of  in  commemoration  of 
his  dying  love ;  where  they  had  so  recently  as- 
sembled through  fear  of  their  Jewish  enemies ;  and 
where  they  ate  and  drank  with  him  after  he  rose 
from  the  dead  both  on  the  evening  of  the  day  of 
his  resurrection,  and  on  the  evening  of  the  succeed- 
ing first  day  of  the  week. 

Yes  ;  there  and  then  it  was  that  he  dispelled  all 
lingering  doubts  from  their  minds,  and  confirmed 
their  faith,  and  cheered  their  hearts,  and  animated 
their  hopes,  speaking  to  them  more  fully  than  he 

*  The  usual  appellation  of  the  Apostles  was  that  of  the  twelve  : 
thus  Paul  speaks  in  1  Cor.  xv.  5.  But  in  Matt  xxviii.  16,  Mark  xvi. 
14,  and  Luke  xxiv.  33,  they  are  referred  to  as  the  eleven.  On  one 
occasion  (John  xx.  24,)  there  might  have  been  hnttenof  the  apostles 
present. 


POSITIVE    EVIDENCE.  69 

had  ever  done   "  of  the  things  pertaining  to  the 
kingdom  of  God." 

There  and  then  it  was  that  he  commissioned 
them  to  "Go  into  all  the  world  and  preach 
the  gospel  to  every  creature;"  to  "baptize  all 
nations  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the 
Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost;"  and  to  teach 
them  "  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  he  had 
commanded  them  :"  solemnly  promising  that  he 
would  "  be  with  them  alway  even  to  the  end  of 
the  world."* 

That  all  things  might  be  brought  to  their  re- 
membrance, whatsoever  he  had  spoken,  and  that 
they  might  be  prepared  to  execute  their  high  com- 
mission, then  it  was,  moreover,  that  he  charged 
them  not  to  depart  from  Jerusalem,  but  to  wait 
there,  even  there  where  he  had  been  crucified,  and 
in  the  midst  of  those  who  had  crucified  him,  to 
wait  for  the  promise  of  the  Father  :  assuring  them 
that  in  the  course  of  a  few  days  after  his  de- 
parture they  would  "be  baptized  with  the  Holy 
Ghost."t 

And  now  the  closing  scene  approaches.  How 
powerfully  do  local  associations  affect  our  hearts  ! 
As  if  to  recall  to  their  remembrance  the  incidents 
of  his  life,  and  connect  his  history  both  before  and 
since  his  death  in  indissoluble  union,  that  they 
might  ever  think  of  him,  and  believe  in  him  as  their 
once  crucified  but  now  risen  and   ascended   Lord, 

*  Mark  xvi.  15.     Matt,  xxviii.  19,  20.         f  Luke  xxiv.  49., 


70  'the    resurrection    of   JESUS    CHRIST. 

*' he  led  them  out  as  far  as  Bethany,"*  and 
''  the  mount  called  Olivet." 

What  must  have  been  their  emotions  while  he 
conversed  with  them  by  the  wayside  as  he  had  been 
wont,  and  when  they  came  to  the  spot  where  in  times 
past  they  had  so  often  hung  upon  his  lips,  and  seen 
his  works,  and  breathed  the  atmosphere  of  his 
purity,  and  felt  the  fervour  of  his  prayers,  it  may  not 
be  impossible  to  imagine ;  but  w^ho  can  conceive  or 
even  appreciate  the  spirit  which  ever  filled,  and  now 
overflows  the  bosom  of  the  risen  Jesus  ? 

Grievously  wronged  as  he  had  been,  and  most 
cruelly  put  to  death,  yet  no  vindictive  sentiment 
escapes  his  lips.  Not  a  word  does  he  utter  that 
might  remind  his  disciples  of  their  own  faithless- 
ness in  the  hour  of  his  trial;  or  serve  to  embitter 
them  against  those  by  whom  he  had  been  arraigned 
and  crucified. 

Though  near  the  scene  which  could  hardly  have 
failed  to  call  back  the  past  with  all  its  ingratitude, 
and  perfidy,  and  injustice  towards  him,  where  Judas 
had  betrayed  him,  and  his  enemies  taken  him,  and 
his  disciples  had  all  forsaken  him  and  fled;  yet  he 
thinks  not  of  himself,  but  to  say  unto  his  apostles, 
"Ye  shall  be  witnesses  unto  me,  both  in  Jerusalem, 
and  in  all  Judea,  and  in  Samaria,  and  unto  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  earth;"  and  then,  lifting  up 

-Bethany  is  described  looth  by  Matthew  and  Mark  as  connected 
with,  or  as  a  part  of  the  Mount  of  Olives  (Luke  xix.  29 :  Mark  xi. 
1.)  Robinson,  215. 


POSITIVE    EVIDENCE.  71 

those  hands  which  had  been  so  recently  nailed  to 
the  cross,  he  blessed  them  ;  and  ''while  he  blessed 
them,"  and  "while  they  beheld  him,"  he  was 
"  taken  up,  and  a  cloud  received  him  out  of  their 
sight.  "=^ 

No  wonder  that  they  were  riveted  to  the  spot, 
"  looking  steadfastly  toward  heaven  !" 

Is  it  not  more  wonderful  than  any  of  his  past 
acts  ?  Must  it  not  be  an  illusion  ?  Oh  !  can  it  be 
that  he  has  been  taken  from  us  when  but  yester- 
day he  was  restored  to  us  from  the  grave  ?  0 
blessed,  blessed  Master  !  shall  we  see  thee  no  more 
forever? 

But  while  they  were  thus  looking  up,  "Behold 
two  men  stood  by  them  in  white  apparel,"  and 
thus  accosted  them :  "  Ye  men  of  Galilee,  why 
stand  ye  here  gazing  up  into  heaven  ?  This  same 
Jesus  which  is  taken  up  from  you  into  heaven,  shall 
so  come  in  like  manner  as  ye  have  seen  him  go  into 

heaven. "t 

Who  that  ponders  these  things  can  be  at  a  loss 
to  conjecture  with  what  adoring  sentiments  of  love 
and  gratitude  to  an  unseen  Saviour  this  angelic 
announcement  was  received  by  those  wondering 
apostles? 

What  could  have  been  the  glowing  utterance  of 
their  hearts  but  one  symphonious  response,  burst- 
ing simultaneously  from  every  lip:  '•^Oome,  Lord 
Jesus,  come  quickly!" 

■*-Luke  xxiv.  61.     Acts  i.  8.  j  Acts  i.  10,  11. 


72  THE    RESURRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

Clear  and  certain  is  it  as  the  record  itself,  that 
'^  they  worshipped  him  ;  and  returned  to  Jerusalem 
with  g7'eat  joy.  And  were  continually  in  the  iQvu- 
'i^Xq  praising  and  blessing  God."*' 

*  Luke  xxiv.  62,  53. 


THE    TESTIMONY    OF    THE   WITNESSES.  73 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  TESTI3LOJSrY  OF  THE  WITNESSES. 

Such  are  the  evidences  of  Christ's  resurrection 
as  gathered  not  from  any  one  of  the  evangelists, 
but  from  each  of  them  in  turn,  together  with  Paul's 
epistolary  allusions  to  the  event. 

Only  one  narrative  of  the  resurrection  would 
not  have  been  sufficient ;  or  had  there  been  but  two, 
however  explicit  and  concurrent  they  might  have 
been,  still,  considering  the  nature  of  the  event,  the 
argument  from  experience  might  have  been  arrayed 
with  no  little  plausibility  against  but  two  narra- 
tives ;  or  the  probability  of  collusion  would  have 
outweighed  the  credibility  of  their  evidence. 

But  there  are  four  distinct  narratives  of  the 
same  event,  embraced  in  four  separate  biographies 
of  the  same  person,  by  diiferent,  though  contempo- 
raneous, writers  :  a  circumstance  without  a  parallel 
in  history ;  and  which  cannot  be  accounted  for,  un- 
less Jesus  Christ  actually  died  in  Judea  in  the 
reign  of  Caesar  Tiberius,  and  unless  there  was  a 
peculiarity  in  his  mission  which  served  not  only  to 
distinguish  him  from  all  ordinary  mortals,  but  to 
7 


•''t"4  THE    RESURRECTION    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 

arrest  universal  attention,  and  move  the  hearts  of 
men  with  an  interest  as  profound  as  it  was  un- 
wonted. 

These  narratives,  moreover,  were  written  after 
the  evangelists  had  in  the  fullest  manner  realized 
the  fact  that  Christ  had  risen  from  the  dead :  they 
themselves,  having,  according  to  his  explicit  direc- 
tions, tarried  at  Jerusalem  until  the  day  of  Pente- 
cost, and  then  received  the  gift  of  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

Hence,  in  writing  a  narrative,  they  would  not  be 
apt  to  multiply  particulars,  or  to  accumulate  proofs 
of  an  event,  of  which,  as  they  had  personally  wit- 
nessed it,  and  were  then  consciously  certain  of  it, 
there  could  not,  in  their  view,  have  been  any  ground 
for  doubt ;  and  which  was  then,  as  they  well  knew, 
extensively  known,  and  believed. 

Hence,  John  says  at  the  close  of  his  narrative : 
"  There  are  also  many  other  things  which  Jesus 
did,  the  which,  if  they  should  be  written  every  one, 
I  suppose  that  even  the  world  itself  could  not  con- 
tain the  books  that  should  be  written." 

Writing  independently  of  each  other,  each  would 
vary  from  the  other  in  minuter  matters ;  yet  each 
in  turn  would  exhibit  the  same  grand  outline  of  the 
scene.  Each  might  differ  from  the  other,  according 
to  his  mental  habits  of  expression,  or  characteristic 
disposition  ;  yet  all  would  agree  in  relation  to  the 
main  facts  :  thus  unlike  as  narrators,  though  alike 
witnesses  of  the  same  event.     One  of  them  might 


THE    TESTIMONY    OF   THE    WITNESSES.  75 

State  what  another  omits  to  mention  ;  but  an  omis- 
sion is  no  contradiction. 

It  does  not  follow,  that  because  but  one  angel 
was  seen  at  one  time,  two  were  not  seen  at  another  ; 
or  because  the  angels  were  not  seen  by  the  men, 
that  they  did  not  appear  to  the  women ;  or  because 
Mary  Magdalene  ran  first  to  Peter  and  John, 
that  she  did  not  afterwards  on  seeing  the  Lord  in 
the  garden,  go  immediately  back,  and  tell  all  the 
disciples  whom  she  could  find. 

As  well  might  it  be  said  that  Christ  could  not 
have  had  such  a  conversation  with  Peter  as  John 
has  detailed,  or  Luke  would  have  mentioned  it ; 
that  the  story  of  the  priests  and  elders  as  given 
by  Matthew  is  improbable,  because  Mark  has  made 
no  mention  of  it ! 

But  it  is  one  thing  to  encounter  difficulties  in 
comparing  authorities,  and  another  to  detect  a 
falsehood :  one  thing  to  be  unable  to  trace  every 
link  in  a  chain  of  circumstances,  and  another  to 
show  that  the  witnesses  to  a  fact  contradict  each 
other.  If  they  agree  in  their  testimony  as  to  the 
fact  itself  that  Christ  actually  appeared  to  them 
and  to  others  after  his  death  and  burial,  then  the 
circumstantial  variety  which  is  so  obvious,  in  their 
respective  narratives  only  proves  that  the  one  did  not 
copy  from  the  other,  and  that  there  was  no  sinister 
agreement  among  them  to  originate  a  story. 

Even  distinct  things  might  easily  be  confounded 
by  any  one  who  would  attempt  to  give  an  account 


76  THE    KESUllKECTIUN    OE    JESUS    CIllUST. 

of  an  event  which  is  either  attended  or  rapidly  fol- 
lowed by  a  combination  of  varied  and  unusual  cir- 
cumstances :  especially  when  the  intelligence  of  the 
event  has  caused  the  most  extraordinary  excitement: 
and  indeed,  so  early  on  the  morning  of  the  resur- 
rection, it  is  but  natural  to  suppose  that  there  was 
the  most  tumultuous  haste  among  the  disciples,  and 
frequent  passing  to  and  from  the  sepulchre. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  that  the  disciples 
ran  about  like  persons  distracted  ;  and  he  who  can 
read  the  narratives  of  the  evangelists-  without 
making  due  allowance  for  the  mental  agitation  into 
which  the  disciples  were  thrown  in  consequence  of 
the  reports  and  visions  on  that  memorable  morn, 
cannot  understand  the  circumstances  in  which  they 
were  placed ;  much  less  appreciate  the  relation 
which  they  had  sustained  to  the  crucified  Jesus ; 
and  w^ould  not  have  been  convinced  of  the  fact 
that  Christ  rose  from  the  dead,  though  he  himself 
had  then  lived,  and  had  actually  seen  "  the  place 
where  the  Lord  lay." 

It  is  their  faithfulness  to  nature,  to  the  workings 
of  this  heart  w^ithin  us,  that  brings  home  to  us  the 
conviction  that  those  narrators  of  the  resurrection- 
scene  w^ere  not  the  writers  of  fiction,  but  eye-wit- 
nesses to  facts. 

That  those  women  should  have  fled  from  the 
sepulchre  trembling  and  speechless ;  that  Mary 
should  have  wept  because  they  had  taken  away  her 
Lord,  and  she  knew  not  where  they  had  laid  him ; 


THE    TESTIMONY    OF    THE    WITNESSES.  77 

that  she  should  have  mistaken  Jesus  for  the  gar- 
dener ;  that  the  apostles  were  slow  of  heart  to  be- 
lieve ;  that  thej  treated  the  reports  of  the  women 
as  "  idle  tales  "  and  "  believed  not ;"  that  they  were 
terrified  and  afirighted  at  the  sudden  appearance 
of  Jesus,  and  supposed  that  they  had  seen  a  spirit ; 
and  after  he  had  showed  them  his  hands  and  his 
feet,  thus  proving  his  own  physical  identity,  that 
still  "  they  believed  not  for  joy,  and  wondered  ;" 
and  that  again  under  other  circumstances,  "  they 
durst  not  ask  him.  Who  art  thou  ?  knowing  that  it 
was  the  Lord  !"  never  was  man's  nature  exhibited 
with  truer,  finer  touches.  No  writer  could  have 
invented  circumstances  with  such  nice  discrimina- 
tion ;  or  thus  revealed  to  us  the  inmost  hearts  of 
those  desponding  disciples,  had  he  himself  not 
known  what  it  was  to  mourn  a  Saviour  crucified  ; 
and  then,  and  so  unexpectedly,  what  it  was  to  be- 
lieve in  a  risen,  ascended  Lord  ! 

Throughout  these  narratives  there  can  be  de- 
tected no  straining  after  effect,  and  no  anxiety  to 
be  believed.  No  remark  is  amplified,  and  no  inci- 
dent exaggerated ;  but  every  thing  is  briefly 
stated,  simply  expressed,  unartistically  arranged, 
and  life-like  in  detail ;  while  the  time,  the  persons, 
the  places,  the  events  both  before  and  after  the  res- 
urrection, its  effect  on  Christ's  enemies  as  well  as 
on  his  friends,  all  are  so  indissolubly  interwoven 
with  his  previous  history  as  to  form  with  it  one  con- 
nected, consistent  whole. 

"7   * 


78  THE    RESURRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

Thus,  it  might  have  seemed  improbable  to  us 
that  the  priests  and  rulers  should  have  invented  so 
ridiculous  a  story,  and  bribed  the  guard  to  circu- 
late it,  had  not  the  narrative  undesignedly  disclosed 
the  motive  by  which  they  were  actuated. 

So,  too,  it  might  have  appeared  strange  that  the 
women  should  have  been  the  first  to  visit  the  sepul- 
chre, and  that  so  very  early  in  the  morning,  had 
they  not  previously  to  the  Sabbath  agreed  to  em- 
balm the  body. 

Or  that  Christ  should  have  appeared  first  of  all 
to  a  woman  might  have  served  to  throw  discredit  on 
the  fact  of  his  resurrection,  were  we  unable  to  per- 
ceive that  he  would  have  acted  inconsistently  with 
himself  had  he  not  been  forward  to  assuage  the 
mourner's  grief. 

The  same  after  his  resurrection  as  before  his 
death,  he  who  had  himself  wept  at  the  grave  of 
Lazarus,  could  not  have  seen  the  grateful,  loving 
Mary,  so  passionately  weeping  at  the  door  of  the 
sepulchre,  and  not  spoken  a  word  of  comfort  to  her 
sorrow-stricken  heart. 

Thus,  while  the  incident  invests  the  character  of 
Christ  with  additional  lustre,  and  even  shadows 
forth  the  beneficent  end  of  his  Divine  mission,  it 
discloses  in  beautiful  harmony  the  remarkable  fact, 
that  woman,  who  was  first  in  the  transgression,  was 
the  first  to  proclaim  the  joyful  tidings  of  a  risen 
Jesus,  a  pardoning  God  ! 

Had  not  these  women  been  so  desirous  of  em- 


THE    TESTIMONY    OF   THE   WITNESSES.  79 

balming  the  body  as  soon  as  the  Sabbath  was  over, 
none  of  the  disciples  who  had  witnessed  the  cruci- 
fixion, and  seen  the  great  stone  rolled  against  the 
door  of  the  sepulchre,  would  have  gone  there  so 
early,  if  at  all ;  and  thus  the  most  important  testi- 
mony to  the  fact  that  early  on  the  morning  of  the 
third  day,  the  body  was  not  where  it  had  been  laid 
after  it  was  taken  down  from  the  cross,  would  have 
been  wanting. 

In  a  matter  also,  so  deeply  involving  the  ques- 
tion of  his  personal  identity  whom  the  angels  said 
had  risen,  and  had  gone  out  from  the  sepulchre, 
whose  testimony  could  have  been  so  essential  as 
that  of  the  women,  who,  having  long  known  Jesus, 
had  often  scanned  his  features,  and  listened  to  his 
voice  with  the  intensest  interest ;  who  had  lingered 
latest  at  the  sepulchre  on  the  evening  of  his  burial, 
and  returned  at  the  earliest  dawn  on  ''  the  first  day 
of  the  week  "  to  pay  their  last  ofiices  to  his  mortal 
remains  ?   . 

But  that  the  angels  should  have  made  them- 
selves visible  only  to  these  women,  is  indeed  a  sin- 
gular circumstance,  unless  it  was  that  the  women 
arrived  at  the  sepulchre  immediately  after  the 
soldiers  had  fled,  and  that  it  might  be  immediately 
announced  to  them  that  Christ  was  risen  before  the 
soldiers  had  time  to  circulate  the  priests'  story. 

Perhaps,  these  angels  were  kindly  directed  to 
remain,  and  to  explain  to  these  wondering  women 
the  enigma  of  the  missing  body,  so  that  they  might 


80  THE    RESURRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

be  expecting  ere  long  to  behold  their  lost  Lord, 
and  not  be  unprepared  to  receive  him  brought  back 
again  to  life ;  and  also  that  bj  their  means, — they 
forthwith  communicating  what  the  angels  had  said, 
Peter,  and  John,  and  others  might  be  brought  yet 
early  to  the  sepulchre  to  see  and  know  for  them- 
selves that  the  body  of  Jesus  was  no  longer  there  ; 
and  thus  be  furnished  with  the  primary  proofs  of 
the  fact  which  were  so  essential  to  their  own  ulti- 
mate assurance  that  he  had  indeed  risen  from  the 
dead. 

The  intervention  of  angels,  strange  as  it  may 
seem  to  us,  was  not  foreign  to  the  Jewish  mind ; 
and  if  an  angel  appeared  to  Jesus  when  he  was  in 
his  agony  in  the  garden,  and  then  strengthened 
him,  much  more  would  angels  have  been  in  attend- 
ance on  his  resurrection-bed.  They  had  announced 
to  women  his  birth;  and  there  was  a  propriety 
therefore  in  their  being  employed  to  announce  to 
the  women  who  came  early  to  the  sepulchre,  the 
tidings  of  his  resurrection. 

But  among  those  women,  one  is  not  there  whom 
we  might  have  expected  to  have  been  among  the 
foremost.  Mary  Magdalene  is  mentioned,  and  the 
other  Mary,  the  mother  of  Joses,  and  Salome,  and 
Joanna,  and  others  with  them  ;  but  no  mention  is 
made  of  Mary,  the  mother  of  Jesus ! 

But  from  the  allusion  to  her  during  the  scene  of 
the  crucifixion,  it  is  probable  that  she  had  not  so 
soon  recovered  from  the  natural  efi'ect  of  a  scene 


THE    TESTIMONY    OF    THE    WITNESSES.  81 

which  to  her  above  all  others,  although  all  the  dis- 
ciples felt  it  painfully  enough,  was  distressing  in 
the  extreme. 

It  was  his  sympathy  with  her  sufferings  that  led 
Jesus  to  commit  her  to  John's  special  care  ;  and 
with  all  a  mother's  heart,  so  wounded  by  the  nails 
which  had  pierced  those  hands,  she  was  in  all  pro- 
bability still  at  John's  home,  whither  he  had  borne 
her  away  from  the  cross :  too  much  overcome  by 
what  she  had  seen,  to  go  out  early,  if  at  all,  on  the 
morning  of  the  third  day. 

Had  she  been  at  the  sepulchre,  however,  the  risen 
Jesus  must  have  said  to  her  as  he  did  to  Mary  : 
*' Touch  me  not." 

He  had  replied  to  some  who,  on  one  occasion  had 
told  him  that  his  mother  and  his  brethren  stood 
without,  desiring  to  speak  with  him :  "  Whosoever 
shall  do  the  will  of  my  Father,  the  same  is  (as  dear 
to  me  as)  my  brother  and  sister  and  mother ;"  and 
therefore  perhaps  his  mother  according  to  the  flesh 
would  have  been  to  him  after  his  resurrection  no 
dearer  than  any  of  his  disciples  ;  nor  would  he  in 
his  risen  body  have  probably  sustained  to  her  any 
other  relation  than  he  did  to  them. 

But  an  idea  of  this  nature  would  hardly  have  oc- 
curred to  the  mind  of  a  fictitious  writer  ;  and  hence, 
had  the  resurrection-scene  been  an  invention  of  the 
fancy,  it  is  quite  certain  that  the  mother  of  Jesus 
would  have  been  at  least  mentioned ;  and  not  unlikely 
that  Jesus  would  have  been  represented  as  appear- 


82  THE    EESURRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

ing  first  to  her,  instead  of  to  the  woman  out  of 
whom  "  he  had  cast  seven  devils." 

It  is  not  known  whether  he  appeared  at  all  to 
his  mother  after  his  resurrection ;  and  if  he  did, 
the  notice  of  it  was  wisely  withheld  from  the  sacred 
page,  so  that  none  might  pay  her  more  homage 
than  was  due  to  any  other  disciple ;  that  there 
might  be  not  the  shadow  of  a  scriptural  reason  for 
worshipping  her  who,  though  "  honoured  among 
women,"  was  never  ranked  by  the  risen  Jesus  above 
the  women  who  came  early  to  the  sepulchre. 

We  have  no  ground  to  suppose  that  he  even  took 
leave  of  his  mother.  She  is  not  mentioned  as 
having  been  among  those  whom  he  gathered  to- 
gether in  solemn,  final  interview  with  him  on  the 
mount  from  which  he  ascended ;  and  it  is  not  till 
after  their  return  to  Jerusalem,  and  we  see  them 
assembled  in  "an  upper  room"  that  we  meet  with 
"Mary  the  mother  of  Jesus;"  or  that  mention  is 
made  of  "  his  brethren." 

She,  with  them,  is  at  prayer !  "  Peter,  and 
James,  and  John,  and  Andrew,  Philip  and  Thomas, 
Bartholomew,  and  Matthew,  James  the  son  of 
Alpheus,  and  Simon  Zelotes,  and  Judas  the  brother 
of  James :  these  all  continued  with  one  accord  in 
prayer  and  supplication  with  Mary  the  mother  of 
Jesus,  and  with  his  brethren/'"^ 

This  fact  may  not  be  noticed  by  those  who  would 
exalt  Mary  to  higher  homage  than  they  would  pay 

*  Acts  i.  12-14. 


THE    TESTIMONY    OF    THE    WITNESSES.  83 

to  Christ.  Let  them  blot  the  record  ;  or  withhold 
it  from  the  astonished  gaze  of  those  whom  Anti- 
christ has  inveigled  into  the  adoration  of  the  vir- 
gin. But  he  who  loves  truth  will  ponder  the  re- 
corded fact.  He  who  would  know  whether  Christ 
did  indeed  rise  from  the  dead,  will  prize  the  fact : 
for  without  it,  the  evangelical  account  of  the  resur- 
rection were  incomplete ;  and  with  it,  we  have  cer- 
tain proof  that  those  apostles  had  seen  and  heard 
what  they  solemnly  affirm  they  did  see  and  hear 
before  their  recent  return  to  Jerusalem,  and  as- 
sembling in  "that  upper  room." 

Had  Jesus  not  risen  from  the  grave,  and  ascended 
to  heaven,  those  apostles,  though  eleven  in  all, 
could  not  have  palmed  the  lie  on  his  kindred  accord- 
ing to  the  flesh  :  "  Mary  the  mother  of  Jesus,  and 
his  brethren,"  had  not  been  with  them  in  "that 
upper  room;"  and  much  less  continued  with  them 
in  prayer  and  supplication ! 


84  THE    RESURRECTION    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

CJREDIBILITY  OF  THE  WITNESSES. 

Such,  then,  is  the  testimony  of  the  witnesses  to 
the  fact  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  from 
the  dead. 

Now  in  order  to  estimate  the  value  of  their  testi- 
mony, it  may  be  observed  that,  if  they  were  not  de- 
void of  common  sense,  they  must  have  been  as 
competent  to  judge  whether  a  person  whom  they 
knew  to  be  dead  has  come  to  life  again,  as  whether 
a  person  whom  they  knew  to  be  alive  one  day  was 
dead  the  next. 

Whether  a  man  is  living,  or  is  dead,  is  to  be  de- 
termined by  the  evidence  of  the  senses ;  and  no 
man,  whether  learned  or  unlearned,  in  the  ordinary 
use  of  his  senses,  need  be,  if  indeed  he  ever  is, 
deceived.  If  the  cessation  of  all  colour,  and  warmth, 
and  motion  certifies  death  beyond  the  possibility 
of  doubt,  then  the  return  of  warmth,  and  colour, 
and  motion,  and  speech,  and  action  in  the  same 
subject  would  furnish  equally  complete  and  indubit- 
able evidence  of  restoration  to  life  ;  and  if  a  man 
has  sense  enough  to  judge  in  the  one  case,  so  has 
he  in  the   other.     He  who  by  the  intuition  of  his 


CREDIBILITY    OF    THE    WITNESSES.  85 

senses  can  discern  the  difference  between  a  dead 
man,  and  a  living  man,  may  know  to  a  certainty 
whether  the  dead  man  is  still  dead,  or  has  become 
a  living  man. 

It  will  not  be  denied  then,  that  the  witnesses  to 
Christ's  resurrection  were  as  competent  to  judge  of 
a  fact  of  this  nature,  as  we  should  have  been,  had 
we  stood  in  the  same  relation  to  Christ. 

Did  they  see  him  die,  and  know  that  he  was 
dead  ?  Did  they  see  where  he  was  buried  ?  Did 
they  see,  and  know  this  same  Jesus,  their  own 
Master,  alive  again  ? 

We  answer,  that  they  could  not  have  been  de- 
ceived as  to  his  death.  He  was  designedly  put  to 
death  by  judicial  authority,  and  in  a  way  most  har- 
rowing to  their  sensibilities,  and  which  could  have 
left  in  their  minds  no  doubt  of  the  fact  ;  and  the 
very  reason  why  his  legs  were  not  broken  after  he 
was  taken  down  from  the  cross,  to  which  he  had  been 
nailed  for  several  hours,  was  that  he  "  was  dead 
already."* 

Yet  one  of  the  soldiers,  as  if  to  make  assurance 
doubly  sure,  plunged  a  spear  into  his  side,  piercing 
the  pericardium^  so  that  "  forthwith  came  thereout 
blood  and  water  :"t  thus  proving  that  death  must 
instantly  have  ensued  had  he  not  been  already 
dead. 

Indeed,  it  was  the  recollection  of  this  fearful 
wound  which  he  must  himself  have  witnessed,  that 

■»  John  Kix.  32.  t  lb.  34. 


86  THE    RESURRECTION    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 

impelled  Thomas  to  reject,  with  instant  and  uncon- 
querable decision,  the  united  testimony  of  all  his 
fellow-disciples  to  a  fact  which  to  his  mind  was  im- 
possible. 

Nor  could  they  have  been  deceived  as  to  the 
place  where  Christ's  body  was  laid.  The  remains 
of  the  malefactors  that  had  been  crucified  with  him 
were  probably  thrown  into  the  '^  Potter's  field." 
But  at  the  urgent  request  of  Joseph  of  Arimathea, 
Pilate  ordered  the  body  of  Jesus  to  be  delivered 
up  to  him  ;  and  he  laid  it  in  his  own  tomb  which  he 
had  hewn  out  in  the  rock,  a  new  tomb  "wherein 
never  man  before  was  laid;"*  and  they  all  knew 
that  they  buried  him  there ;  and  the  Galilean 
"women  also  followed  after,"  it  is  said,f  "and 
beheld  the  sepulchre,  and  how  his  body  was  laid." 
Consequently  the  body  of  Jesus  could  not  have 
been  mistaken  for  some  other  body  ;  and  none  of 
them  could  have  been  deceived  as  to  the  fact  that 
that  identical  body  was  missing  on  the  morning  of 
the  third  day  :  for  the  sepulchre  was  then  tenant- 
less  ! 

Nor  could  they  afterwards  have  mistaken  a 
phantom  for  the  risen  Jesus.  An  illusion  of  the 
senses  is  by  no  means  impossible ;  and  in  relation 
to  whatever  has  been  ardently  desired  or  long  ex- 
pected by  one,  and  which  has  taken  full  possession 
of  the  imagination,  an  illusion  is  not  improba- 
ble. 

*  Matt,  xxvii.  58-61.  f  Luke  xxiii.  50-55. 


CREDIBILITY    OF    THE    WITNESSES.  87 

But  in  relation  to  a  matter  of  fact  wholly  un- 
looked  for  ;  a  fact  which  falls  under  the  cognizance 
of  the  senses  ;  which  admits  of  close  and  repeated 
scrutiny ;  for  the  examination  of  which,  with  all  its 
attendant  circumstances,  ample  time  is  given,  and 
every  suitable  means  employed,  it  is  to  the  last 
degree  improbable  that  any  man  in  his  senses 
should  be  deluded  ;  and  physically  impossible  that 
any  number  of  men  together  should  be  deluded, 
and  at  the  same  time   testify  to  the  same  illusion. 

An  illusion  of  the  senses  is  the  delusion  of  an 
individual  mind ;  not  the  clear,  calm  conviction  of 
many  minds,  consequent  on  the  united  evidence  of 
their  separate  senses. 

All  illusions  in  relation  to  the  marvellous  are 
traceable  to  some  one  person,  and  because  they  are 
unsupported  by  the  ocular  testimony  of  some  other 
person  who  had  the  same  opportunity  of  judging 
of  the  phenomenon,  they  are  pronounced  to  be  il- 
lusions. 

But  history  may  be  searched  in  vain  for  an  illu- 
sion under  which  two  or  more  persons  have  simul- 
taneously laboured  ;  and  if  there  could  be  unexcep- 
tionable testimony  to  such  an  illusion  as  to  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  it  would  follow  that  no  man  can  with 
certainty  discriminate  between  phantoms  and 
realities  :  a  conclusion,  we  need  not  say,  utterly  at 
variance  with  the  facts  of  consciousness,  and  with 
the  testimony  of  experience,  opposed  even  by  the 
whole  course  of  human  action. 


88  THE    KESURRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHBIST. 

It  is  not  merely  improbable,  therefore,  that  the 
apostles  should  have  been  deceived  by  their  own 
senses  when  the  risen  Jesus  stood  before  them,  an<i 
they  heard  him  speak,  and  saw  him  eat,  and  felt 
his  hands  and  his  feet.  With  such  proofs  submit- 
ted to  all  their  senses,  it  was  not  possible  for  them 
to  be  deceived ;  and  had  there  been  but  two  wit- 
nesses to  the  reappearance  of  the  crucified  Jesus, 
and  he  had  given  them  the  same  sensible  proofs  of 
his  being  alive  again,  and  being  the  very  same 
person  that  he  was  known  to  have  been  before  his 
death,  such  independent,  positive,  and  agreeing  tes- 
timony to  a  fact,  if  not  rebutted  by  contrary  evi- 
dence, would  suffice  to  decide  the  most  important 
question  of  fact  that  ever  came  before  a  court  of 
civil  justice. 

But  in  this  case,  there  were  eleven  prominent 
witnesses,  all  agreeing  in  their  testimony  to  the 
fact  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  several  appearances  of  the  risen  Jesus  were 
to  them  personally  :  at  first  to  one  ;  then  to  two  ; 
and  then  again  to  all  of  them,  until  his- appearance 
was  familiar  to  their  observation  ;  nor  did  any  of 
these  witnesses  believe  that  he  had  risen,  until  they 
had  had  the  evidences  of  their  own  senses  to  the 
fact,  unless  we  except  the  apostle  John,  though  he 
did  not  believe  until  the  sight  of  the  grave-clothes, 
so  carefully  folded  up,  and  laid  aside  in  the  sepul- 
chre, flashed  upon  his  mind  the  conviction  that  the 
missing  body  could  not  have  been  stolen. 


CREDIBILITY    OF   THE    WITNESSES.  89 

He  was  seen  by  certain  women  also,  as  well  as 
by  the  eleven  disciples.  He  was  seen  at  diiferent 
times,  and  in  different  places,  and  by  different  per- 
sons during  a  period  of  forty  days ;  and  once  by 
about  five  hundred  at  the  same  time  and  place. 
"  This  Jesus  hath  God  raised  up,  whereof  all  we  are 
witnesses."* 

Now,  however  imperfect  the  acquaintance  which 
the  disciples  in  general  might  have  had  with  Jesus, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  eleven  of  them  knew 
him  intimately.  They  had  been  with  him  from  the 
beginning  ;  they  had  gone  out  and  in  with  him  all 
the  time  of  his  ministry  on  earth. 

We  need  not  tell  those  men  that  before  they  can 
be  admitted  to  testify  to  a  fact  of  this  nature,  they 
must  prove  that  they  are  all  competent  to  judge 
whether  Jesus  himself  had  actually  risen. 

They  knew  as  well  as  we  do,  that  no  one  could 
be  a  competent  witness  in  the  case  who  had  not 
enjoyed  a  long  and  intimate  acquaintance  with 
Jesus  prior  to  his  crucifixion.  They  themselves 
would  admit  no  man  to  testify  who  had  not  "  seen 
the  Lord"  both  before  and  after  his  resurrection. 

No  one  could  be  an  apostle  who  had  not  been  an 
eye-witness  to  the  fact  of  the  resurrection ;  and 
hence  when  an  election  was  to  be  made  of  some 
suitable  person  to  supply  the  place  of  Judas  who 
had  "gone  to  his  own  place,"  and  to  restore  the 
number  of  the  apostles  to  Christ's   original  desig- 

*  Acts  ii.  32. 


90  THE    RESURRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

nation,  Peter  standing  in  the  midst  of  "  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  disciples"  who  had  assembled  after 
the  ascension,  addressed  them  in  these  remarkable 
words  :  "  Wherefore,  of  these  men  who  have  com- 
panied  with  us  all  the  time  that  the  Lord  Jesus 
went  in  and  out  among  us,  beginning  from  the  bap- 
tism of  John  unto  that  same  day  that  he  was  taken 
up  from  us,  must  one  be  ordained  to  be  a  witness 
with  us  of  his  resurrection."* 

There  were  numerous  eye-witnesses  then ;  and 
there  might  have  been  a  larger  number  collected 
on  the  occasion  of  the  apostolic  election,  had  it  not 
been  that  far  the  larger  proportion  of  the  five 
hundred  to  whom  Christ  appeared,  resided  in 
Galilee ;  and  it  may  be  that  but  few  comparatively 
had  the  time  or  the  opportunity  to  go  to  Jerusalem 
so  soon  after  the  ascension. 

But  though  the  apostles  had  followed  Christ's 
ministry,  and  had  been  most  deeply  interested  in  his 
character  and  works,  they  cannot  be  justly  regarded 
as  being  either  prejudiced  or  credulous  witnesses. 

Alike  with  their  countrymen,  they  had  looked  on 
"him  who  should  come,"  as  a  temporal  Prince  who 
should  lead  Israel  on  to  victory  and  renown  ;  and 
they  were  not  prepared  to  see  him  at  last  die  the 
death  of  the  vilest  malefactor.  "  Be  it  far  from 
thee.  Lord,"  said  Peter,  when  Christ  told  them  that 
the  Jews  would  crucify  him,  and  put  him  to  death, 
"  this  shall  not  be  unto  thee." 

*  Acts  i.  21,  22. 


CREDIBILITY    OF   THE    WITNESSES.  91 

It  was  SO  contrary  to  all  they  had  expected  of 
their  Messiah  that  they  could  not  comprehend  the 
import  of  Christ's  "saying,"  though  it  was  uttered 
several  times  ;  and  hence  when  he  was  arrested, 
they  fled  ;  when  he  was  condemned,  and  executed, 
they  gave  up  in  despair.  Ah,  ''  we  trusted  that  it 
had  been  he  which  should  have  redeemed  Israel ;" 
and  now  he  is  dead  and  buried  ! 

In  this  state  of  mind  therefore,  they  could  have 
had  no  more  idea  of  ever  seeing  him  again,  than 
of  welcoming  back  to  life  either  of  the  thieves  that 
had  been  crucified  with  him. 

Notwithstanding  their  Lord's  prediction,  the  pos- 
sibility of  his  literally  '"rising  again"  no  more  oc- 
curred to  them,  than  it  did  to  the  priests  and  elders, 
who  remembered  the  saying  only  to  guard  the 
sepulchre,  lest  the  disciples  should  steal  his  body, 
and  thus  contrive  to  infect  the  public  mind  with  the 
idea  that  he  had  indeed  risen  from  the  dead. 

Or,  if  the  "saying"  of  Jesus  had  occurred  to 
the  apostles  when  his  body  was  laid  in  the  tomb, 
their  agitation  of  mind  must  have  been  too  great  to 
admit  of  their  accrediting  what,  under  other  cir- 
cumstances, and  in  the  very  presence  of  their 
blessed  Master,  they  had  failed  even  to  understand. 

Hence,  as  we  have  seen,  they  were  slow  to  believe, 
when  there  was  every  reason  to  believe ;  difficult  to 
be  convinced,  though  proofs  of  the  fact  were  con- 
stantly accumulating. 

The  reports  of  the  women  seemed  unworthy  of 


92  THE    RESURRECTION    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 

credence.  The  testimony  of  Peter,  and  then  that 
of  "  the  two  disciples"  caused  them  to  wonder  only 
the  more,  and  they  believed  not :  one  of  them 
stoutly  resolving  that  he  would  accept  of  no  evi- 
dence short  of  that  which  the  senses  alone  can  give  ; 
and  the  very  first  time  that  Jesus  appeared  in  person 
to  the  body  of  the  disciples,  so  far  from  welcoming 
him,  we  have  seen  that  they  were  affrighted  :  think- 
ing as  was  perfectly  natural  for  men  of  their  habit 
and  mood  of  mind  to  think,  that  it  was  not  Jesus, 
but  his  ghost ! 

It  is  the  nature  of  despondency  to  close  the  heart 
against  the  means  of  its  own  relief;  and  Jesus 
was  even  constrained  to  upbraid  them  for  their  un- 
belief. It  was  no  easy  task  even  for  him  to  over- 
come their  obstinate  resistance,  and  dissipate  their 
gloomy  fears  ;  nor  did  they  yield  their  cordial  as- 
sent until  it  is  evident  that  they  might  as  well  have 
questioned  each  other's  individual  existence,  as  deny 
the  fact  that  Jesus  Christ  himself  who  was  crucified, 
dead,  and  buried,  now  stands  before  them  ! 

If  Jesus  gave  them  the  proofs  of  his  resurrec- 
tion which  all  the  four  evangelists  state  that  he  did, 
it  matters  not  whether  they  were  all  as  impressible 
as  Peter,  or  as  slow  of  heart  as  those  dwellers  at 
Emmaus ;  as  loving  as  John,  or  as  skeptical  as 
Thomas,  there  could  have  been  no  difference  in  their 
verdict ;  no  unequal  degrees  of  conviction  in  their 
minds,  so  long  as  they  were  sane  men  with  the 
ordinary  faculties  and  senses  of  men. 


CREDIBILITY    OF    THE    WITNESSES.  93 

All  possibility  of  doubt  was  excluded  when  they 
saw  the  same  face,  and  the  same  form  ;  saw  the 
prints  of  the  nails  both  on  his  hands  and  his  feet ; 
saw  and  pressed  the  wound  in  his  side,  saw  him, 
too,  in  the  breaking  of  bread ;  heard  his  Avords  of 
peaceful  salutation  ;  recognized  his  voice  ;  followed 
his  directions  ;  notified  others  where  he  would  meet 
them ;  travelled  themselves  a  distance  of  eighty 
miles  to  meet  him  according  to  his  own  appoint- 
ment ;  returned  again  to  Jerusalem  where  he  then 
more  particularly  instructed  them ;  Avent  with 
him  to  Bethany,  and  Olivet,  and  there  received 
his  last  commands  ;  and  then,  steadfastly  behold- 
ing him,  saw  him  taken  up  from  earth  out  of  their 
sight. 

Behold  them,  again  assembled  in  that  very  room 
where  they  had  so  often  met  with  Jesus,  where  but 
yesterday  they  had  met  him  for  the  last  time,  and 
heard  him  speak  "  of  things  pertaining  to  the  king- 
dom of  God." 

Behold  them,  praying  there  as  men  had  never 
prayed  before,  in  the  name,  and  for  the  saJce,  of 
Jesus  ! 

See  them,  "  when  the  day  of  Pentecost  w^as  fully 
come,  all  with  one  accord  in  one  place,"  and  "all 
filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,"  and  each  in  turn 
"  speaking  with  other  tongues  as  the  Spirit  gave 
them  utterance." 

Hear  them  proclaiming  to  the  representatives 
of    every  nation  under   heaven,  and  to   each  "  in 


94  THE    RESURRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

Lis  own  language "  "  the  wonderful  works  of 
God."* 

Hear  them  preaching  repentance  for  the  remis- 
sion of  sins,  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ. 

See  them  performing  miracles  in  the  name  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

Mark  how  their  hearers  are  ''  pricked  in  their 
hearts;"  and  how  they  cried  out  "Men  and  breth- 
ren, What  shall  we  do  ?"  And  how  the  apostles  bap- 
tized them  in  the  name  of  Jesus :  yea,  and  on  that 
same  day  which  they  had  been  directed  to  wait  for, 
on  which  the  promise  of  their  ascended  Lord  was 
to  be  verified,  how  they  then  baptized  in  the  name 
of  Jesus  "  about  three  thousand  souls  "  who  "  con- 
tinued steadfastly  in  the  apostles'  doctrine  and  fel- 
lowship, and  in  the  breaking  of  bread,  and  in 
prayers,  "t 

How  wonderful  the  change  which,  in  so  brief  a 
space,  has  come  over  their  minds  and  hearts,  since 
the  dark  hour  of  their  trial,  when  He  whom  they 
had  followed  was  nailed  to  the  cross  ! 

How  wonderful  that  they  should  teach  and  do, 
what  they  had  not  the  most  remote  conception  of 
doing  when  Jesus  was  put  to  death,  what  Christ 
himself  was  never  known  to  tell  them  before  his 
death ! 

How  wonderful  that  Jews  should  offer  prayers, 
and  utter  doctrines  so  strange  to  Jewish  ears ! 
That  Galileans   should  speak  fluently  and  intelligi- 

*  Acts  ii.  1-13.  t  Acts  ii.  37-42. 


CREDIBILITY    OF    THE    WITNESSES.  95 

bly  to  any  foreigner  in  his  own  native  tongue  ! 
That  men,  who  had  never  before  spoken  in  public, 
should  address  an  audience,  mixed  and  numerous 
as  it  was,  wjth  all  the  self-possession  of  experience, 
and  all  the  overmastering  power  of  the  most 
studied  oratory  !  That  men  whose  only  skill  had 
been  in  mending  the  fisher's  net,  should  cure  dis- 
eases which  the  observation  of  all  Judea  had  pro- 
nounced desperate  !  Above  all ;  that  a  promiscuous 
throng  of  people  from  other  countries,  as  well  as 
of  Jerusalem,  should,  as  it  were,  at  the  bidding  of 
these  recently  commissioned  apostles,  repent  of 
their  sins,  especially  of  the  sin  of  having  crucified 
the  Lord  of  glory  ;  and  in  testimony  of  their  faith 
in  what  these  apostles  had  declared,  receive  baptism 
at  their  hands  "  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of 
the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost  !" 

Wonderful  ?  Inexplicable  rather,  unless  there 
was  something  in  the  life  of  Jesus  that  to  their 
minds  bespoke  a  heaven-born  origin  and  a  Divine 
mission  ;  something  in  his  death  that  seemed  to 
have  a  solemn  and  momentous  reference  to  all  the 
members  of  a  dying  race. 

What  do  we  say  ?  It  is  inexplicable  unless 
Christ  himself  did  burst  the  bars  of  the  sepulchre 
in  which  his  crucified  body  was  laid,  and  they 
themselves  had  seen  him  "  after  that  he  was  risen 
from  the  dead;"  and  Christ  had  then  taught  them 
as  no  one  else  in  all  the  world  could  have  done ; 
had    commanded    them    to    preach    and  to  baptize 


96  THE    RESURRECTION    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 

in  his  name ;  had  endowed  them  with  the  power 
which  he  himself  had  been  known  to  exercise  while 
he  was  on  earth  ;  and  had  given  unto  them  the 
Spirit  of  all  truth  and  grace,  which  before  his 
ascension,  according  to  his  own  declaration,  he  had 
promised  to  pour  out  upon  them  on  the  day  of 
Pentecost. 

If  ever  a  body  of  men  had  the  amplest  possible 
reasons  to  be  convinced  of  any  event,  these  apostles 
had  such  reasons  for  being  convinced  that  Jesus 
Christ  rose  from  the  dead  !  Whatever  else  they 
might  have  been,  they  were  not  prejudiced,  and 
much  less  credulous  witnesses  for  Christ.  On 
grounds,  such  as  we  have  no  more  than  barely 
alluded  to,  "gave  the  apostles  witness  of  the  res- 
urrection of  the  Lord  Jesus."* 

In  view  of  the  proofs  to  which  they  could  refer, 
it  is  clear  that  they  did  not  render  themselves  justly 
obnoxious  to  the  charge  of  either  arrogance  or 
dogmatism  when  they  said  :  "  We  have  not  fol- 
lowed cunningly  devised  fables  when  we  made 
known  unto  you  the  presence  and  power  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  but  were  eye-witnesses  of  his 
majesty,  "t  "That  which  we  have  seen  with  our  eyes, 
which  we  have  looked  upon,  and  our  hands  have 
handled  of  the  word  of  life,  that  declare  we  unto 

*  Acts  iv.  33.  t  2  Peter  i.  16.  J  1  John  i.  1-3. 


THE    WITNESSES    CHOSEN.  9T 


CHAPTEK  yil. 

THE  WITNESSES  CHOSEN. 

Admitting  then,  that  the  number  of  the  apostles, 
and  the  nature  of  the  evidence  that  was  submitted 
to  them,  both  separately  and  collectively,  render  it, 
to  say  the  least,  most  improbable  that  they  could 
have  been  deceived  in  relation  to  the  event ;  may 
it  not  be  viewed  as  a  suspicious  circumstance  that 
all  the  so-called  witnesses  had  been  previously  en- 
rolled among  Christ's  followers  ?  Why,  it  is  asked, 
did  he  not  make  himself  known  to  the  full  convic- 
tion of  those  who  had  not  been  his  disciples  ? 

As  well  might  it  have  been  asked,  why  he  did  not 
immediately  perform  some  other  miracle  to  convince 
of  his  Messiahship  those  who  did  not  believe  in  him, 
even  when  they  saw  Lazarus  come  forth  from  the 
grave  at  his  omnipotent  command. 

It  was  after  witnessing  this  wondrous  work,  that 
the  priests  and  Pharisees  said  in  their  council:  "He 
doeth  many  miracles  ;  if  we  let  him  alone  all  men 
will  believe  on  him  ;"  and  "  from  that  day  they 
took  counsel  together  to  put  him  to  death."*  Hav- 

*  John  xi.  49-53. 


98  THE    RESURRECTION    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 

ing  rejected  such  evidence,  they  could  not  reason- 
ably have  demanded  more ;  nor  consistently  with 
the  nature  of  his  claims,  or  their  own  responsibility 
to  God,  could  Christ  have  given  them  more. 

It  followed  from  the  very  nature  of  Christ's 
mission  that,  whilst  all  serious  and  honest  truth- 
seekers  might  understand  and  receive  the  teachings 
of  his  miracles,  they  who  were  desirous  of  evad- 
ing moral  obligation,  should,  though  seeing,  see 
not,  and  though  hearing,  hear  not. 

But  if  it  was  difficult  for  him  to  remove  the 
doubts  of  those  who  had  long  known  him,  and 
whose  unwillingness  to  admit  that  he  was  risen, 
arose  simply  from  the  fact  that  they  had  seen  him 
put  to  death,  and  could  therefore  no  longer  hope 
against  hope ;  much  more  difficult  would  it  have 
been  to  convince  those  of  the  fact  of  his  resurrec- 
tion who  had  seen  him  but  seldom ;  who  had  even 
been  accessary  to  his  death,  and  were  most  viru- 
lently opposed  to  the  doctrines  which  he  had 
taught. 

It  were  unreasonable  then  to  suppose  that  the 
risen  Jesus  would  have  appeared  to  his  enemies  ; 
and  if  it  be  thought  that  for  his  own  sake,  to  show 
his  superiority  to  all  personal  injury,  and  his  dis- 
interested regard  for  their  salvation,  he  should 
have  appeared  to  all  the  Jews,  whether  they  had 
favoured  or  opposed  his  mission,  then,  by  parity 
of  reasoning,  he  should  have  immediately  made 
himself  known  to  the  whole  world  :  he  should  come 


THE   WITNESSES    CHOSEN.  99 

in  person  to  every  individual  of  every  successive 
generation  down  to  the  end  of  time  ! 

Thus  it  appears  that  to  throw  suspicion  on  the 
credibility  of  the  witnesses  simply  because  they  had 
all  been  Christ's  disciples,  is  in  effect  to  disparage 
the  proofs  of  a  written  revelation,  if  not  to  deny 
its  very  possibility. 

Christ  had  given  to  all  his  countrymen  the 
amplest  opportunities  to  ascertain  the  nature  and 
grounds  of  his  claims  to  the  Messiahship  ;  and  now 
his  work  on  earth,  that  work  which  the  Father  had 
given  him  to  do,  is  done.  He  will  himself  teach 
the  people  no  more.  Never  again  will  the  scribes 
and  Pharisees  hear  his  voice  rebuking  their  hypoc- 
risies, nor  sinners  calling  them  to  repentance. 
Never  again  will  the  promiscuous  multitude  see 
him  work  another  miracle  in  attestation  of  his 
word. 

All  was  finished  when  he  gave  up  the  ghost ; 
and  now  that  he  has  risen,  it  but  remains  to  com- 
mit to  faithful  men  "  the  glorious  gospel  of  the 
grace  of  God." 

He  could  die  hut  once  for  "  the  sin  of  the  world;" 
and  as  "he  made  an  offering  of  himself  once  for 
all,"  so  to  answer  then,  and  in  all  after  times,  the 
great  end  of  his  Redemptive  Act,  it  was  necessary 
that  he  should  rise  from  the  grave ;  and  not  more 
so,  than  that  he  should  certify  the  fact  of  his  having 
risen  to  some  persons  in  particular. 

And  whom  should  he  have  selected,  if  not  men  of 


100        THE    RESURRECTION    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 

sound  minds,  taken  not  only  from  the  ranks  of  the 
people,  but  from  among  those  who  had  been  with 
him  from  the  beginning  ?  And  how  many  should 
he  have  selected,  if  tivelve  sejjarate  witnesses  be  not 
enough  to  establish  any  fact  ?  though  to  these 
might  be  added  both  Luke  and  Mark ;  and  Paul 
also,  who,  though  "born  out  of  due  time"  was  not 
"  a  whit  behind  the  very  chiefest  apostle." 

But  whoever  might  be  employed  to  testify  to 
Christ's  resurrection,  must  have  "infallible  signs" 
of  his  personal  re-appearance  among  them  ;  or  they 
will  hardly  attempt  to  make  others  believe  what 
they  are  by  no  means  certain  of  themselves :  they 
must  have  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  mind 
and  will  of  their  risen  Lord ;  a  full  knowledge  of 
all  things  pertaining  to  his  kingdom ;  and  be  in 
every  respect  qualified  both  to  testify  to  what  they 
have  seen,  and  to  write  and  publish  an  accurate 
account  at  once  of  his  life  and  death,  of  his  resur- 
rection and  ascension :  so  that  the  sons  of  men  in 
all  after  times  might  have  "a  perfect  understand- 
ing of  all  things  from  the  first." 

If  any  w^ere  thus  selected,  and  thus  qualified  for 
the  task,  they  would  testify  to  the  fact ;  they  would 
proclaim  it  far  and  wide  in  every  tongue,  make  it 
known  to  the  foes  as  well  as  to  the  friends  of  Jesus, 
write  about  it,  as  well  as  speak  of  it :  they  would 
seize  the  most  public  occasions,  and  favourable  op- 
portunities for  giving  their  testimony ;  entreat  the 
people  to  hear  ;  challenge  inquiry  ;  defy  refutation; 


THE    WITNESSES    CHOSEN.  101 

and  their  testimony,  if  worthy  of  being  received, 
woukl  be  confirmed  by  miracles  wrought  by  them 
in  the  name  of  Him  whom  the  priests  and  rulers 
had  "  crucified  and  slain." 

It  was  necessary,  then,  that  Christ  should  appear 
after  his  resurrection  only  to  those  whom  he  had 
chosen  to  be  the  special  witnesses  of  the  fact. 

Hence,  Peter  said  :  "  Him  God  raised  up,  and 
shewed  him  openly,  not  to  all  the  people,  but  unto 
witnesses  chosen  before  of  God,  even  to  us  who  did 
eat  and  drink  with  him  after  he  rose  from  the  dead; 
and  he  commanded  us  to  preach  unto  the  people  and 
to  testify."* 

Hence,  "  the  word  of  the  Lord  was  published  " 
both  to  Jew  and  to  Gentile ;  and  "  signs  and 
wonders"  were  wrought  by  the  apostles  of  Jesus 
in  attestation  of  the  truth  of  their  doctrines. f 

Hence,  there  are  now  extant,  in  twenty-seven 
parts,  different  writings  which  were  composed  by 
eight  different  persons  not  many  years  after  the 
events  which  they  have  recorded  ;  and  that  there 
was  no  pre-concert  among  them,  and  no  undue 
haste,  is  evident  from  the  respective  dates  of  their 
separate  writings. 

Though  Matthew  wrote  his  account  within  six  or 
eight  years  after  the  crucifixion  ;  and  Mark  his, 
and  under  the  eye  of  Peter,  about  the  year  of  our 
Lord  sixty-one  ;  and  Luke  followed  some  two  years 
after  "  to  set  forth  in  order  a  declaration   of  those 

*  Acts  X.  40-42.  t  Acts  xiv.  3. 

9  * 


102        THE    RESURRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

things  which  were  most  surely  believed,"  yet  John, 
the  last  surviving  apostle,  did  not  complete  his 
testimony  until  after  an  interval  of  about  thirty 
years.* 

Not  to  dwell,  however,  on  the  written  testimony 
of  different  witnesses ;  yet  within  a  very  few  years 
after  the  crucifixion,  how  great  an  amount  of  oral 
testimony  must  have  been  delivered  by  the  apostles 
to  the  fact  of  the  resurrection,  how  demonstrative 
must  have  been  their  arguments,  how  weighty  their 
appeals,  how  conclusive  their  miraculous  works 
when  so  many  of  their  countrymen  could  in  one 
day  give  up  their  Sabbaths,  their  Temple,  and  their 
Priests ;  and  in  their  stead,  adopt  the  Christian 
Sabbath  with  its  simple  ordinances  of  prayer  and 
praise,  and  of  "  the  breaking  of  bread !" 

But  if,  notwithstanding  all  the  supernatural 
proofs  with  which  the  apostolic  doctrine  was  ac- 
companied, the  priests  and  rulers,  so  far  from  ac- 
knowledging their  sin  in  having  "  crucified  the  Lord 
of  glory, "  could  command  the  witnesses  not  to  preach 
in  the  name  of  Jesus,  and  could  threaten  them  with 
stripes  and  bonds  if  they  did ;  nay,  within  a  brief 
period  after  the  day  of  Pentecost,  cause  one  of  the 
witnesses  to  be  put  to  death,  or  connive  at  the 
murderous  deed,t  is  it  to  be  gravely  supposed  that 
they  would  have  believed  on  Christ  had  he  only 

*  A.  D.  97.  See  in  this  connection,  Ifosheim's   Commentaries,  voL 
1.  pp.  113,  114.      Schaffs  History  of  Christian  Church,  p.  265-6. 
t  Acts  vii.  54-60. 


THE   WITNESSES   CHOSEN.  103 

shown  himself  to  them  after  the  resurrection  ? 
And  because  he  did  not,  is  the  testimony  of  those 
to  whom  he  did  show  himself  to  be  received  with 
distrust  and  suspicion  ? 

These  rulers  and  Pharisees  had  once  said,  "  Show 
us  a  sign  and  we  will  believe  ;"  and  when  the  sign 
was  given,  what  said  they  ?  ''  He  casteth  out  devils 
by  Beelzebub,  the  prince  of  the  devils  !" 

But  show  us  a  sign  from  heaven^  said  they ;  and 
a.  sign  from  heaven  was  given  :  Christ,  by  a  voice 
from  heaven,  was  declared  to  be  *'the  Son  of  God;" 
and  did  they  not  then  believe  ?  Far  from  it :  they 
charged  him  with  blasphemy  ''  because  he  had  made 
himself  equal  with  God." 

The  fact  is,  their  unbelief  was  as  wilful  and  per- 
sistive  as  their  malignity  was  unrelenting ;  and  now, 
in  the  accomplishment  of  their  dark  purpose,  these 
same  priests  and  rulers,  these  bigoted  and  desperate 
Pharisees,  are  pressing  round  the  cross  of  their 
victim. 

See  how  they  scourge  him,  and  spit  upon  him, 
and  revile  him  !  Hear  their  challenge  :  "  If  thou 
be  the  Son  of  God,  come  down  from  the  cross." 

Christ  did  more:  he  came  u])  alive  from  the  grave  ^ 
though  they  themselves  had  so  carefully  and 
strongly  guarded  his  dead  body  ;  and  they  knew 
that  their  guard  had  kept  the  most  vigilant  watch ; 
they  knew  that  that  body  could  not  have  been  taken 
away  without  the  knowledge  of  their  guard  ;  and 
though  they  had  not  believed  his  words,  they  knew 


104        THE    RESUERECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

that  Christ  had  risen ;  and  did  they  then  embrace 
him  as  their  Messiah  ?  No  ;  they  told  the  soldiers 
to  lie  for  them,  and  to  say  that  his  disciples  stole 
him  away  while  they  slept. 

So  true  is  it,  that  a  man's  bigoted  attachments 
and  evil  passions  may  close  his  mental  eye  to  all 
the  radiance  of  noon-tide  certainty ;  and  hence  it 
is  that  no  facts  which  involve  a  moral  truth  can 
be  accompanied  with  irresistible  evidence.  Chris- 
tianity, as  portrayed  in  the  New  Testament,  labours 
under  no  more  disadvantage  now  than  Christianity 
did  when  its  Founder  moved  in  all  his  spotless 
purity  and  God-like  beneficence  among  the  hills 
of  Galilee ;  or  lifted  up  his  voice  in  the  streets  of 
Jerusalem  to  make  known  to  its  inhabitants  the 
mighty  works   and  true  sayings  of  God. 

Man's  heart  may  be  fortified  against  all  the  evi- 
dences with  which  Christianity  urges  its  claims ; 
and  when,  as  in  the  case  of  a  Paul,  God's  grace 
interposes,  it  is  not  to  impart  other  or  clearer  evi- 
dences ;  it  is  only  to  humble,  and  to  soften  man's 
proud  and  obdurate  heart :  thus  endowing  it,  as  it 
were,  with  a  capacity  for  admitting  evidence,  and 
receiving  the  truth  in  the  love  of  it. 


HYPOTHESES    OF    INEIDELITY.  105 


CHAPTEE  VIII. 

HYPOTSESES   OF  INFIDELITY. 

Nor  were  these  priests  and  elders  more  forward 
to  cloak  their  own  sin  bj  impeaching  the  honesty 
of  the  disciples,  than  infidels  have  ever  been  to 
disparage  the  character  of  Christ's  "  chosen  wit- 
nesses." 

"  Chosen  witnesses  ?  Say  rather  downright  en- 
thusiasts :  for  all  enthusiasts  have  regarded  them- 
selves as  the  favourites  of  Heaven." 

And  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  apostles  have 
exposed  themselves  to  the  charge  of  enthusiasm,  in 
having  styled  themselves  the  "  chosen  witnesses," 
unless  they  had  been  chosen,  and  had  had  certain 
evidence  of  the  fact. 

But  from  all  that  we  can  gather  of  their  history, 
we  know  that  they  were  not  self-moved  to  follow 
Christ,  but  called  by  him  ;  that  they  did  not  derive 
their  views  of  the  kingdom  of  God  from  internal 
suggestions,  but  from  Christ's  teachings  ;  and  that 
their  apprehensions  of  the  nature  of  his  kingdom 
were  never  clear  until  some  time  after  his  resurrec- 
tion, they  had  received  the  gift  of  the  Holy 
Ghost. 


106        THE    RESUREECTION    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 

We  know,  too,  that  it  was  no  easy  matter  for 
Christ  to  disahuse  their  minds  of  the  prejudices  of 
their  education  ;  and  yet,  that  at  last  their  views  of 
him  were  only  in  accordance  with  the  prophetic 
teachings  of  their  own  Scriptures  ;  and  in  relation 
to  the  fact  of  the  resurrection,  we  have  already 
seen  that  they  were  strangely  slow  to  believe,  most 
difficult  to  be  convinced  ;  and  not  convinced  until 
all  doubt  was  morally  impossible. 

Having  been  instructed  by  Christ,  they  aimed  to 
teach  others  only  what  they  had  themselves  been 
taught :  having  submitted  their  own  wills  to  his 
authority,  they  would  have  others  follow  them,  but 
only  so  far  as  they  followed  Christ ;  and  no  more 
doubting  what  they  had  seen  and  heard  from  Christ 
than  their  own  personal  existence,  they  were  never 
backward  to  refer  inquirers  to  the  absolute  grounds 
of  their  own  belief. 

In  support  of  the  novel  doctrines  which  they 
advanced,  they  appealed  to  facts  which  were 
known  to  others  as  well  as  to  themselves  ;  and 
to  miracles  which  they  publicly  wrought,  not 
in  their  own  name,  but  in  that  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth. 

In  neither  their  narratives  of  events,  their 
epistles  to  converts,  their  addresses  to  the  public, 
nor  in  their  controversies  with  either  the  Jews  or  the 
Greeks,  can  there  be  detected  any  traces  of  a  blind 
zeal,  or  an  ungoverned  fancy ;  and  in  the  whole 
course  of  their  history,  there  is  not  an  instance  of 


HYPOTHESES    OF    INFIDELITY.  107 

their  appealing  to  their  own  impressions  and  feel- 
ings in  order  to  convince  others. 

They  thought  clearly  without  effort  ;  reasoned 
closely  without  dogmatism ;  spoke  forcibly  without 
vociferation,  and  expressed  themselves  simply  and 
with  brevity. 

Their  writings  can  now  be  read  and  re-read 
by  all  who  love  to  ponder  truth,  with  the  same 
fresh  interest  that  the  lover  of  nature  feels  when 
he  returns  to  gaze  on  scenes  which,  however 
familiar  to  his  eye,  never  lose  their  charm  to  his 
heart. 

But  without  that  tuition  which  they  had  enjoyed, 
the  scenes  which  they  had  witnessed,  and  the  powers 
with  which  they  were  endowed,  had  they  merely 
felt  themselves  to  be  the  subjects  of  some  immediate 
and  extraordinary  communications  from  Heaven,  as 
is  always  the  case  with  religious  enthusiasts,  how 
differently  would  they  have  appeared ;  and  with 
what  different  sentiments  must  their  writings  have 
been  viewed  :  if,  indeed,  their  writings  had  survived 
till  now  to  indicate  in  the  remote  past  a  remarkable 
period  of  religious  delusion  ! 

Enthusiasm  has  its  origin  in  unfounded  impres- 
sions ;  and  is  a  persuasion  of  the  truth  of  the  mind's 
own  imaginings  in  relation  to  religious  matters,  in- 
dependently of  either  reason  or  fact.  It  sees 
without  light,  knows  without  knowledge,  and  be- 
lieves without  proof;  and  the  poor  enthusiast  ac- 
cordingly is  sure  simply  because  he  is  sure,  and  ex- 


108        THE    RESURRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

pects  to  be  believed  by  all  the  world  because  he 
himself  believes ;  and  hence  imperiously  enjoins  his 
own  internal  suggestions,  or  groundless  fancies,  as 
matters  of  implicit  faith  and  obedience. 

Not  so  men  who  "  spake  as  they  were  moved  by 
the  Holy  Ghost."  Moved  to  what?  To  narrate 
the  life  and  death,  the  resurrection  and  ascension 
of  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  acts  of  the  apostles ;  to 
reveal  the  mind  and  will  of  God  to  man  through 
him  whom  God  had  sent,  that  we  might  have  "  a 
perfect  understanding  of  all  things  from  the  very 
first,"  and  "know  the  certainty  of  those  things" 
as  they  were  "  delivered  to  those  who  from  the  be- 
ginning were  eye-witnesses  and  ministers  of  the 
word  ;"  "  and  might  believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  God;"  and  that  believing  we  "might 
have  life  through  his  name."* 

These  men  of  Galilee  were  never  moved  but  to 
speak  forth  "the  words  of  truth  and  soberness," 
so  that  those  who  heard  them,  and  those  who  could 
only  read  what  they  had  been  moved  to  write, 
might  "  prove  all  things  and  hold  fast  that  which  is 
good." 

Enthusiasm,  sooner  or  later,  allies  itself  with  fa- 
naticism. It  is  as  proud  and  boastful  as  it  is  impul- 
sive and  dogmatic;  and  may  be  sour  and  malignant. 

He  who  is  wedded  to  fancy  rather  than  to  fact, 
and  loves  self  more  than  truth,  will  both  unduly 
extol,  and  perversely  disparage;  loving  only  those 

*Lukei.  1-4.     1  John  v.  13. 


HYPOTHESES    OF    INFIDELITY.  109 

wlio  favour  his  object ;  hating  and  reviling   all  who 
oppose. 

How  strange  is  it  then,  that  these  followers  of 
Jesus  should  have  recorded  his  history  with  all  its 
wonderful  passages,  and  superhuman  excellencies 
without  a  note  of  exclamation,  and  much  less  a  word 
of  panegyric  on  their  leader  :  he  too  the  most  extra- 
ordinary personage  the  world  had  ever  seen !  when, 
though  they  saw  him  put  to  a  death  of  agony  and 
shame,  and  knew  the  motives  by  which  his  enemies 
had  been  actuated,  that  not  an  expression  of  anger, 
nor  even  a  censure  should  have  escaped  their  lips. 

This  is  not  all :  no  men  ever  had  more  reason 
for  self-complacent  exultation  than  these  same  wit- 
nesses. 

By  their  teachings  which  arrested  listening 
crowds  ;  by  their  miracles  which  none  could  deny, 
and  but  few  pervert ;  by  their  fortitude  which 
enabled  them  to  endure  all  things  for  the  sake 
of  Christ ;  by  their  perseverance  which  tri- 
umphed over  all  obstacles,  they  attained  an 
influence  over  mind  which  no  limits  could  define, 
and  which  the  lapse  of  ages  has  not  been  able  to 
impair. 

Before  this,  what  were  they  but  fishermen,  tax- 
gatherers,  and  tent-makers?  and  who  would  not  be 
lifted  up  in  heart,  if  raised  so  suddenly  to  dis- 
tinction, and  renown?  Yet  humility  and  self- 
renunciation  were  prominent  traits  in  their 
character. 


110        THE    RESURRECTION    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 

Some  of  them  do  not  mention  their  own  names ; 
and  John  speaks  of  himself  as  "  that  other  disciple 
whom  Jesus  loved." 

Paul,  when  constrained  to  vindicate  his  apostle- 
ship,  lest  the  Christian  cause  would  suffer  through 
him,  declares  "•  boasting  to  be  folly  :"  that  "  not  he 
who  commendeth  himself  is  approved,  but  whom 
the  Lord  commendeth  ;"  that  in  his  self- vindication, 
necessary  as  it  was,  he  had  "  become  a  fool  in  glory- 
ing;" that  he  was  not  meet  to  be  an  apostle  ;*  and 
once  having  occasion  to  advert  to  his  labours,  he 
checks  himself,  and  adds  with  unfeigned  modesty, 
"  Yet  not  I,  but  the  grace  of  God  that  was  with 
me." 

Though  thus  inspired  to  write  and  to  preach, 
they  did  not  presume  on  the  Divine  favour,  or  con- 
clude that  they  could  not  come  short  of  the  "prize 
of  their  high  calling  in  Christ  Jesus  ;"  but  feared, 
aye,  these  chosen  witnesses  feared,  lest,  after  all, 
they  themselves  should  "be  castaways,"  because 
they  knew  that  they  were  "  men  of  like  passions" 
with  others. 

What  is  still  more  striking,  and  admits  of  no  ex- 
planation in  consistency  with  the  supposition  that 
they  were  enthusiasts,  they  have  put  on  record  the 
faults  wherewith  they  were  chargeable,  and  on  ac- 
count of  which  they  were  rebuked :  their  unbelief, 
their  pride,  their  emulations,  their  disputes,  their 
cowardice,  and  their  desertion  of  their  Master  in 

*  See  2  Cor.  x.  xi. 


HYPOTHESES    OF    INFIDELITY.  Ill 

the  hour  of  his  need.  Peter's  denial  is  no 
less  conspicuous  in  their  narrative  than  Judas' 
treachery. 

There  is  another  hypothesis,  and  it  is  the  last  to 
which  Infidelity  can  have  recourse. 

The  crucifixion,  having  caused  great  lamentation 
among  Christ's  followers,  and  a  frantic  jubilee 
among  his  enemies,  could  not  have  been  forgotten 
in  a  day.  Months,  if  not  years,  may  roll  away, 
and  not  a  few  among  that  "  great  company  of  peo- 
ple" who  followed  on  to  Calvary  will  remember  that 
piteous  spectacle ;  nor  will  some  at  least  among  the 
multitude  of  Christ's  enemies  forget  how  it  was 
that  they  effected  his  execution  ;  and  why  it  was 
that  they  had  so  strictly  guarded  the  sepulchre 
where  his  body  was  laid. 

Never  had  the  mind  of  a  people  been  so  agitated 
by  conflicting  sentiments ;  never  had  rulers  ren- 
dered themselves  so  perilously  liable  to  be  judged 
for  their  own  judicial  acts  ;  and  they  knew  that 
they  were ;  and  hence  were  only  the  more  anxious 
that  he  whom  they  had  crucified  should  be  the  oc- 
casion of  no  more  popular  excitement. 

Now,  aside  from  the  fact  that  the  disciples  had 
been  scattered  "  like  sheep  without  a  shepherd," 
none  of  them  could  have  been  ignorant  of  the  in- 
fluences which  resulted  in  the  death  of  their  Mas- 
ter ;  and  had  any  among  them,  whether  for  their 
own  vindictive  gratification,  or  to  reinstate  them- 
selves  in   the   estimation   of  the   community,  been 


112         THE    RESURRECTION    OE   JESUS    CHRIST. 

disposed  to  circulate  a  groundless  rumour  that 
Christ  had  risen  from  the  dead,  they  must  have 
been  devoid  of  the  ordinary  qualifications  of  im- 
postors had  they  not  broached  the  story  at  first 
in  some  far  distant  place,  and  so  returned  with 
caution  to  Jerusalem ;  or  had  they  not  postponed 
all  overt  measures  to  effect  their  end,  until  the 
tragic  scenes  of  Calvary  had  ceased  to  stir  the 
public  mind,  and  the  prominent  actors  in  that  bloody 
drama  had  themselves  passed  off  the  stage.  Less 
than  knaves  are  they,  if  they  can  so  outwit  them- 
selves as  to  go  at  once  where  they  will  certainly  be 
detected,  and  forthwith  arrested. 

But  these  witnesses  of  Christ's  resurrection,  so 
soon  as  they  returned  from  Bethany  to  Jerusalem 
made  known  the  fact  to  others  ;  and  after  only  a 
few  days'  delay  proclaimed  it  on  an  occasion  which 
had  drawn  together  men  from  every  part  of  the 
nation  :  made  choice  of  this  very  occasion  when 
Jerusalem  was  crowded  with  strangers,  that  ..they 
might  have  the  greatest  possible  number  of  hearers  ; 
proclaimed  it,  too,  within  six  weeks  after  the  cruci- 
fixion, and  within  the  hearing  of  the  holy  family 
whom  they  must  have  personally  known  ;  within 
the  hearing,  moreover,  of  those  who  had  every 
motive  to  prove,  if  they  could,  that  it  was  false,  and 
all  the  requisite  authority  and  means  to  conduct  a 
judicial  examination. 

It  is  against  all  human  experience  that  some 
twelve  men  should  have  united   in   telling  a  mere 


HYPOTHESES    OF    INFIDELITY.  113 

storj  of  Christ's  having  risen,  when  at  that  very 
time,  and  in  their  own  presence  were  scores  of  men, 
both  of  those  who  had  followed  Christ,  and 
those  who  had  been  consenting  to  his  death, 
who  might  with  equal  facility  have  exposed  the 
fraud  ;  and  who,  to  say  the  least,  could  have  had  no 
interest  in  conniving  at  a  falsehood  of  such  a 
nature. 

It  is  against  all  the  national  sentiments  of  the 
Jews,  moreover,  that  a  fabrication  of  this  nature 
should  have  originated  in  Jerusalem ;  and  though 
mythological  inventions  were  familiar  to  the 
Gentiles,  yet  had  "Jesus  and  the  Anastasis"  been 
excogitated  by  some  Athenian  mind,  the  doctrine 
would  not  have  been  received  as  true,  so  foreign 
was  it  to  the  notions  of  those  whom  Paul  addressed: 
much  less,  then,  had  it  been  accredited  by  the  fol- 
lowers of  Moses ;  and  if  it  had  not  been  first  be- 
lieved by  some  among  the  Jews,  none  of  their 
brethren  according  to  the  flesh  would  have  been 
converted  to  so  novel  a  doctrine ;  and,  by  conse- 
quence, the  Jews  themselves  had  never  published 
the  tidings  in  the  ear  of  the  Gentile  world. 

Nor  could  such  a  story  have  originated  at  a  later 
period  than  that  to  which  the  narrative  refers,  be- 
cause it  embodies  certain  miraculous  facts  which  are 
inseparably  connected  with  certain  publications, 
and  commemorative  ordinances ;  and  he  who  in- 
vented the  former  and  forged  the  record  of  such 
facts,  must  also  have  contrived  the  latter  ;  and  it 
10  ■» 


114        THE    KESURRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

is  not  possible  that  any  people  could  be  persuaded 
that  they  and  their  fathers,  from  the  time  of  Christ's 
death,  had  always  believed,  and  always  observed 
what  they  had  never  heard  of  before,  and  knew 
positively  that  they  never  had  observed. 

Certain  it  is  that  neither  "  Christian  baptism," 
nor  the  "Lord's  supper,"  nor  the  "Lord's  day" 
could  ever  have  been  imposed  on  the  observance  of 
the  Jews,  had  the  wonderful  facts  from  which  they 
took  their  rise  been  absolute  fictions  ;  and  he  who 
would  trace  these  commemorative  ordinances  to 
their  origin,  must  go  back  to  the  period  of  the  great 
events  recorded  in  the  New  Testament ;  or  he  is 
not  only  false  to  history,  but  blind  to  reason. 

It  is  too  obvious  to  be  formally  remarked,  that 
Christianity  must  have  had  a  beginning  among  men ; 
but  how  could  it  have  had  a  beginning  unless  the 
Christian  ministry  and  the  Christian  ordinances 
prove  the  eredibility  of  the  miraculous  fact  of  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  ?  And  if  so,  then  the 
narratives  which  embody  the  facts  in  Christ's  history, 
could  not  have  been  forged. 


CONCLUSION    OF   THE   ARGUMENT.  115 


CHAPTER  IX. 

CONCIjZrSIOK  OF  THE  AJtGVMEJfT. 

Here  we  might  rest  the  argument :  for  it  is  im- 
possible to  account  for  the  ordinances  of  the  Chris- 
tian church,  nay,  for  the  existence  of  the  Christian 
sect  at  any  time,  unless  it  be  a  fact  that  Peter  on 
the  day  of  Pentecost,  in  the  city  of  Jerusalem, 
(and  it  may  be  within  sight  of  Calvary,)  addressed 
the  multitude  then  and  there  collected,  and  affirmed 
that  Jesus,  whom  their  rulers  had  but  a  short  time 
before  crucified  and  slain,  was  raised  up  from  the 
dead  in  proof  that  he  was  "both  Lord  and  Christ." 

Nor  is  this  the  most  remarkable  fact  in  this  con- 
nection. So  ample  were  the  proofs  which  this  wit- 
ness adduced,  so  convincing  his  arguments,  that  as 
we  have  seen,  three  thousand  of  his  auditors  believed. 
Believed  what  ?  That  Jesus  died  and  rose  again  ! 
Believed,  and  were  baptized  into  the  name  of  Jesus  ! 

The  apostles,  therefore,  must  have  uttered  what 
they  knew  to  be  both  truth  and  fact ;  or  their  so- 
called  three  thousand  converts  were  deceived  as  men 
never  were  before.  And  if  thousands  of  people,  living 
in  Jerusalem,  and  knowing  of  Christ's  death ;  know- 
ing too,  how,  and  for  what  their  rulers  had  compassed 


116         THE    RESURRECTION    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 

his  ignominious  death,  were  so  confounded  in  their 
whole  mental  habits  of  association  and  belief,  by 
false  representations  from  Christ's  pretended  apos- 
tles, as  to  abandon  all  their  wonted  modes  of  think- 
ing, and  rules  of  acting  in  religious  matters,  it  were  a 
greater  miracle  than  that  Christ  should  have  risen 
from  the  dead ;  a  thousand-fold  more  difficult  of 
credence  than  that  the  apostles  should  have  spoken 
to  them  "  the  truth  in  Christ  "  and  that  they  were 
thus  fairly,  openly,  and  truly  converted  to  the  faith 
in  the  risen  Jesus  ! 

But  no  character  is  too  pure  for  the  truth-hater 
to  asperse  ;  no  insinuation  too  base  that  will  but 
afford  a  pretext  for  unbelief. 

As  the  disciples  w^ere  wantonly  slandered  by  the 
Jewish  rulers,  so  have  these  witnesses  been  griev- 
ously maligned,  as  if  they  had  been  the  most  daring 
and  adroit  impostors  that  ever  lived.  And  they 
must  have  been  so.  There  is  now  no  alternative. 
The  issue  must  be  met.  If  Christ  rose  not  on  the 
third  day  after  his  crucifixion,  those  chosen  wit- 
nesses were  false  and  black  as  hell ! 

Satan  himself  once  essayed  to  bring  down  Christ 
to  his  own  level  ;  and  it  is  not  strange  that  men, 
consciously  void  of  principle,  should  question  the 
integrity  of  Christ's  w^itnesses.  But  there  is  no 
more  reason  to  conclude  that  they  were  impostors, 
than  there  was  for  the  priests  and  rulers  to  say 
that  they  were  thieves. 

For  had  they  been  conscious   of  uttering  what 


CONCLUSION    OF    THE    ARGUMENT.  117 

they  knew  to  be  false,  as  they  must  have  been, 
if  Jesus  did  not  convince  them  that  he  had 
indeed  risen,  how  could  they  have  thought  for 
an  instant  that  any  one  would  believe  them  ? 
Theirs  was  not  a  story  to  please  the  fancy,  and 
seduce  the  judgment ;  or  to  gratify  earth-born  ap- 
petites. Nothing  could  have  been  so  expressly 
adapted  to  enkindle  the  ire  of  the  Jew,  and  pro- 
voke the  scorn  of  the  Gentile.  "  While  in  its  rela- 
tion to  the  teachings  of  Christ,  it  tended  to  noth- 
ing short  of  the  demolition  of  all  heathen  systems 
of  religion,  it  served  to  bring  against  the  Jews  the 
awful  charge  of  having  murdered  God's  own  Son  : 
it  mortified  their  pride  of  race ;  struck  at  the  root 
of  all  their  bigoted  attachments  ;  dashed  all  their 
hopes  of  deliverance  from  the  Roman  yoke,  sounded 
in  their  ear  the  death-knell  of  their  national  exist- 
ence. 

No  Jew,  therefore,  could  give  credence  to  the 
apostles'  story  without  giving  up  his  long  cherished 
hopes  of  civil  freedom ;  turning  away  from  that 
beautiful  temple  where  his  fathers  had  worshipped ; 
and  thus  not  only  abandoning  the  ordinances  of  his 
religion,  but  cutting  himself  oif  from  the  sympa- 
thies of  his  brethren  according  to  the  flesh ;  for- 
feiting his  possessions,  and  jeoparding  his  life. 

To  combat  thus  with  a  people  whose  tenacious 
adherence  to  their  own  religious  customs  was 
equalled  only  by  their  national  aversion  to  every 
other    system    of    religious    belief,    a    people  who 


118        THE    RESURRECTION    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 

through  the  medium  of  their  priests  and  rulers  had 
opposed  Christ  from  the  beginning  of  his  ministry, 
nor  desisted  in  their  malicious  work  until  they  had 
seen  him  doomed  to  a  felon's  death,  was,  to  say  the 
least,  a  task  of  all  others  the  least  promising  to 
men  who  had  no  facts  to  adduce  in  proof  of  their 
assertions. 

Whatever  might  have  been  their  mental  qualities, 
or  their  adventitious  advantages,  they  must  have 
known  that  in  such  an  enterprise  all  would  be  their 
enemies,  not  excepting  the  many  who  had  themselves 
followed  Christ :  for  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that 
all  of  them  could  have  been  drawn  into  the  plot. 

They  must  have  known,  also,  that  they  would 
have  to  face  the  same  multitude  that  had  so  lately 
thronged  the  cross  of  the  despised  Nazarene  ;  that 
they  would  be  met  and  resisted  by  the  most  honourr 
able  and  powerful  men  in  the  land,  themselves 
most  deeply  concerned,  both  in  honour  and  interest, 
to  detect  and  crush  the  imposture  ;  and  how  could 
they  have  ventured  to  encounter  obstacles  and 
dangers  so  formidable,  had  their  testimony  been 
false  ?  The  strength  to  do,  to  dare,  to  suffer,  can 
issue  only  from  conscious  sincerity. 

What  were  they  to  gain  ?  By  their  own  ac- 
knowledgment, they  had  at  the  outset  dismissed  all 
idea  of  a  temporal  kingdom ;  and  in  consequence 
of  their  Master's  well  remembered  words,  they  had 
laid  their  account  with  toil,  and  poverty,  and 
shame. 


CONCLUSION    OF   THE    ARGUMENT.  119 

Nor  did  they  aifect  to  conceal  the  oiFence  of  the 
cross,  or  refrain  from  forewarning  those  who  might 
accredit  their  statements,  of  the  temporal  conse- 
quences of  their  faith  in  Christ:  that  they  too 
might  be  hated  of  all  men  for  his  sake. 

How  different  were  these  men  from  any  that  ever 
before  appeared  in  Jerusalem  !  No  longer  the 
observers  of  Jewish  ordinances,  yet  humbly  obedient 
to  the  God  of  Abraham :  not  false  to  Moses,  and 
yet  true  to  Jesus. 

Theirs  are  no  earth-born  views,  no  vulgar  senti- 
ments. If  they  speak,  it  is  as  the  Spirit  gives 
them  utterance.  If  they  weep,  it  is  because  men 
"  are  enemies  to  the  cross  of  Christ."  If  they 
glory,  it  is  in  "  the  cross  of  Christ,"  by  which  the 
world  is  crucified  to  them,  and  they  unto  the  world. 
If  they  rejoice,  it  is  that  they  may  be  "  counted 
worthy  to  suffer  shame  for  the  name  of  Christ." 
All  worldly  losses  seem  to  them  trivial  compared  to 
the  loss  of  that  "  soul  for  which  Christ  died,"  all 
worldly  gains  but  dross,  if  they  may  but  "  win 
Christ,  and  be  found  in  him."  Whether  the  world 
smile  or  frown,  nothing  shall  either  seduce  or  terrify 
them  from  the  profession  of  their  faith,  and  hope, 
and  joy  in  Christ.  Man's  judgment  is  a  little 
matter  to  them,  so  long  as  their  testimony  is  on 
high,  and  their  record  in  heaven.  Come  what  may 
to  flesh  and  blood,  all  they  ask  is  that  they  may  be 
"  faithful  in  their  testimony  unto  death  ;"  and  all 
they  are  looking  for  is  "  a  crown  of  righteousness" 


120        THE    RESURRECTION    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 

from  the  hand  of  their  ascended  Master.  Unless 
they  can  rely  on  his  promise,  and  look  forward  with 
the  confidence  of  certainty  to  the  rewards  and  joys 
of  his  presence  in  heaven,  they  seem  to  be  aware 
that  their  cause  is  desperate,  their  condition  de- 
plorable. 

If  Christ  be  not  risen,  we  are  found  false  wit- 
nesses of  God  ;  because  we  have  testified  of  God 
that  he  raised  up  Christ.  "If  in  this  life  only  we 
have  hope  in  Christ,  we  are  of  all  men  most  miser- 
able."* 

But  in  a  case  of  this  kind,  we  want  something 
more  than  an  expression  of  their  views,  and  sym- 
pathies :  for  men  may  seem  fair,  and  yet  be   false. 

Nor  is  it  conclusive,  in  evidence  of  their  charac- 
ters, that  many  believed  their  story ;  for  doubtless 
there  were  credulous  people  then  as  there  are  now, 
though  the  most  credulous  are  not  apt  to  be  im- 
posed on  when  the  impostor  offers  to  them  no 
worldly  inducements,  not  even  a  moment  of  grati- 
fied desire. 

Nor  does  it  necessarily  follow  that  one's  belief  is 
true,  because  he  submits  to  death,  rather  than  re- 
cant. Various  influences  may  combine  to  pervert 
the  understanding ;  and  the  pride  of  opinion  may 
be  greater  at  times  than  the  love  of  life. 

But  in  the  case  of  tivelve  witnesses  to  a  matter  of 
fact,  respecting  which  they  could  not  have  been  de- 
ceived ;  which  was  contrary  to  their  expectations, 

*  1  Cor.  XV.  14-19. 


COXCLUSIOX    OP    THE    ARGUMENT.  121 

contrary  to  their  habits  of  thinking,  and  against 
all  their  worldly  interests  to  make  known  to  their 
countrymen  ;  which,  without  preconcert  on  their 
part,  had  wrought  so  wonderful  a  change  in  their 
whole  mental  and  moral  being,  as  impelled  them 
to  give  their  instant  testimony  to  the  fact,  and 
on  the  very  spot  where  the  event  must  have 
occurred,  if  it  occurred  at  all :  in  the  midst  of 
those  who  were  under  the  strongest  possible  in- 
ducements, and  had  every  means,  to  prove  it  false; 
yea,  in  the  hearing  of  all  the  world,  in  such  a  case, 
it  becomes  a  matter  of  the  extremest  importance  to 
know,  how  they  acted  after  the  novelty  of  the  event 
had  ceased  to  affect  their  imaginations,  and  the 
ardour  of  their  first  impressions  had  had  time  to 
abate  :  whether  no  one  among  them  shortly  faltered 
and  grew  pale  ;  or  whether  they  all  persisted  in  the 
same  testimony  in  despite  of  dangers  a  thousand 
fold  greater  than  any  they  could  have  anticipated. 

The  fearful  issue  which  their  testimony  to  a  fact 
of  this  nature  was  too  well  adapted  to  provoke,  has 
at  last  come.  See  them  scorned,  vilified,  execrated. 
See  them  plundered,  imprisoned,  tortured ;  and, 
with  the  single  exception  of  the  apostle  John,  who 
survived  to  complete  the  volume  of  their  recorded 
testimony,  all  in  turn  put  to  death,  foully  murdered 
for  their  persistent  testimony,  and  let  him  believe 
who  can,  that  their  testimony  was  an  absolute  fic- 
tion, wickedly  invented  to  deceive  mankind. 

We  cannot :  any  more  than  we  can  believe  that 
11 


122        THE    RESURRECTION    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 

there  is  pleasure  in  pain,  glory  in  ignominy,  or  a 
strong  natural  preference  in  man's  nature  of  misery 
to  comfort,  or  of  death  to  life :  yea,  the  love  of  all 
physical  evils  for  the  sake  of  adhering  to  known 
falsehood. 

The  whole  course  of  human  events,  as  well  as 
man's  nature,  is  in  favour  of  the  truth  of  such 
testimony  as  these  witnesses  gave  to  the  fact  of  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ ;  and  to  oppose  expe- 
rience to  their  testimony  because  the  fact  involved 
is  miraculous,  is  worthy  only  of  a  mind  too  sophisti- 
cal to  detect,  or  too  trifling  to  admit,  the  self-con- 
tradiction of  such  an  argument. 

What  !  believe  that  twelve  men  of  sound  minds 
will  suffer  the  deprivation  of  all  worldly  good,  and 
cheerfully  submit  to  toil,  and  poverty,  and  shame, 
and  hatred,  and  bonds,  and  stripes,  and  a  bloody 
death,  simply  and  solely  that  they  might  persuade 
mankind  to  believe  what  they  knew  to  be  false  ? 

But  this  is  not  the  only  difiiculty  involved  in  the 
hypothesis  that  the  witnesses  to  the  resurrection 
were  impostors.  He  who  adopts  it  must  believe, 
so  long  as  he  reasons  logically  from  his  own  premi- 
ses, that  men  who  thus  lied  against  their  own  con- 
sciences, and  abused  the  confidence  of  their  fellow- 
men,  and  took  God's  name  in  vain,  nevertheless 
portrayed  in  living  colours  a  perfect  image  of 
human  excellence,  framed  an  unequalled  code  of 
morals,  unfolded  the  clearest  views  of  God  and  im- 
mortality,  inculcated  the    purest   principles,   pre- 


CONCLUSION"    OF    THE   ARGUMENT.  123 

sented  the  noblest  incentives  to  human  action,  lived 
themselves  the  holiest  lives,  and  inspired  the  multi- 
tude of  their  followers,  who  had  been  so  recently 
either  bigoted  Jews  or  benighted  heathen,  with  every 
sentiment  of  love  to  God  and  good  will  to  man  ! 

He  must  admit,  too,  that  they  took  as  much 
pains,  and  suffered  as  many  privations,  and  en- 
countered as  formidable  difficulties  to  establish 
what  they  knew  was  not  the  fact,  as  they  could 
have  done,  had  they  believed  their  own  testimony, 
and  their  own  testimony  been  true ;  that,  though 
men  of  ordinary  abilities,  with  no  education  and 
without  alliances,  they  contrived  to  deceive  those 
whose  duty  and  interest  and  honour  it  was  to  re- 
fute their  story :  contrived  to  deceive  multitudes, 
so  that,  whether  Jews  or  Greeks,  they  forthwith  re- 
nounced the  customs  of  their  fathers,  observed  the 
j&rst  day  of  the  week  in  commemoration  of  the 
story,  and  submitted  to  baptism  in  the  name  of  the 
young  man  who  had  been  so  recently  crucified  at 
Jerusalem :  contrived  ere  long  to  inveigle  and  en- 
list in  their  plot  the  foremost  man  of  all  Israel ! 
him  who  had  been  brought  up  after  the  straitest 
sect  of  the  Pharisees ;  who  had  sat  at  the  feet  of 
Gamaliel,  and  had  breathed  out  threatenings  and 
slaughter  against  them,  even  held  the  clothes  of  the 
witnesses  when  one  of  their  number  was  stoned  to 
death ;  and  in  connection  with  the  subsequent  life 
and  labours  of  this  supposed  convert,  even  contrived 
to  frame   and  publish   a  series   of  narratives   and 


124         THE    RESURRECTION    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 

epistles,  so  unartistic  and  life-like,  so  undesigned  in 
their  coincidences,  and  harmonious  in  their  tenor, 
that  no  plain,  straightforward,  and  veritable  matter 
of  fact  history  could  bear  a  more  rigorously  critical 
scrutiny. 

More  than  all  this  :  he  must  admit  and  hold  that 
although  they  could  not  but  foresee  the  consequences 
of  persisting  in  their  conscious  fabrication,  and  had 
indeed  from  day  to  day  only  the  m.ore  certain  evidence 
that  it  would  plunge  them  into  divers  perils,  yet  that 
not  one  of  them  wavered  or  prevaricated,  but  were 
all  alike  firm  and  consistent ;  as  indissolubly  linked 
together  by  the  tie  of  a  common  falsehood  held  in 
secret  between  them,  as  if  they  had  been  united  to 
Christ  by  a  living  faith  in  his  resurrection,  and 
actually  commissioned  by  him  to  preach  the  gospel ; 
j,hat  with  invincible  resolution,  when  a  violent  death 
was  staring  them  in  the  face,  they  steadfastly  per- 
severed, clinging  to  their  conscious  falsehood  to  the 
very  last ;  and  with  their  last  breath  uttering  them- 
selves in  accents  of  the  sublimest  devotion  to  their 
ascended  Lord  ! 

Christianity  has  indeed  its  mysteries  as  "  dark 
with  excessive  light"  as  the  throne  of  the  Eternal; 
but  it  offers  no  solecisms  to  our  reason,  no  contra- 
dictions to  our  faith,  no  shadowy  form  to  our  affec- 
tions. 

In  accordance  with  the  Divine  purpose  from  the 
beginning ;  with  the  hope  of  the  promise  made  by 
God  unto  the  fathers ;  with  the  concurring  voice  of 


CONCLUSION    OF   THE    ARGUMENT.  125 

ancient  prophecy  ;  with  the  import  of  all  divinely 
appointed  sacrifices  ;  yea,  even  with  the  expectation 
of  the  world  at  the  time,  of  the  Messiah's  advent, 
it  tells  of  One  who,  though  "equal  with  God," 
"  took  upon  himself  the  form  of  a  servant,"  "being 
made  under  the  law;"  and  who  "died  for  our  of- 
fences and  rose  again  for  our  justification  :"  and  it 
bids  us  hope  in  him,  and  live  unto  him,  and  die 
unto  him,  that  we  ourselves  may  at  last  be  raised 
to  a  new  and  endless  life,  through  him  who,  before 
he  "  humbled  himself"  to  die,  declared  himself  to 
be  THE  Resurrection  and  the  Life. 

Blessed  be  "  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord 
and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,"  for  the  testimony  of 
those  chosen  witnesses !  What  do  we  not  owe  to 
those  men  "  of  whom  the  world  was   not  worthy  !" 

But  he  who  denies  and  falsifies  their  testimony, 
what  is  his  creed  ?  whence  are  his  data  ? 

Alas  !  if  consistent  with  his  own  principles  of 
reasoning,  he  knows  not  whence  he  is,  or  whither 
going  ! 

Some  day  or  other  he  must  lay  himself  down  and 
die  !  This  is  all  he  knows  with  certainty ;  and  well 
may  we  shudder  as  we  approach  his  grave,  and  read 
his  epitaph : 

"  From  nothing  I  sprang,  to  nothing  I  return : 
all  that  remains  of  me  is  dust,  ivhich  here  mingles 
with  its  native  dust.'' 
11  * 


^5 

126        THE    RESURRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  MEIjATION   OF  THE  FACT  OF  THE   BESUBREC- 
TION  TO   CHRISTIAN   DOCTRINE. 

From  the  manner  in  which  the  preceding  argu- 
ment has  been  conducted,  this  relation  -will  be 
obvious  to  those  who  prize  the  commonly  received 
<loctrines  of  Christian  faith :  knowing,  as  they  do, 
whom  they  have  believed. 

But  as  this  relation,  though  strictly  logical,  has 
been  either  evaded  or  overlooked  to  the  rejection 
or  perversion  of  certain  essential  principles  of  be- 
lief as  inculcated  by  the  sacred  writers,  it  may  not 
be  deemed  a  superfluous  task  to  adduce  a  few  ex- 
amples in  illustration  of  its  importance. 

Owing  to  the  repulses  which  avowed  infidel- 
ity has  often  encountered  in  its  direct  and  un- 
blushing assaults  on  Christianity,  it  has  of  late 
ceased  to  be  an  open  question,  whether  such  a  per- 
son as  Jesus  Christ  ever  lived.  As  well  might  we 
doubt  any  universally  admitted  fact  of  ancient 
history  as  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  the  founder 
of  that  system  of  religion  which  bears  his  name. 

Nor  is  it  an  open  question,  whether  he  was  put  to 
death  in  the  reign  of  Caesar  Tiberias  by  crucifixion; 


RELATION    TO    CHRISTIAN    DOCTRINE.  127 

and  so  by  parity  of  reasoning  the  fact  of  his  resur- 
rection must  be  admitted  ;  for,  though  the  super- 
natural is  interwoven  with  the  texture  of  the  sacred 
narratives,  the  proofs  are  essentially  of  the  same 
nature,  and  derivable  from  the  same  sources 
whether  we  consider  his  life,  his  death,  or  his  re- 
surrection. 

It  but  remains,  therefore,  for  men  of  a  specula- 
tive cast  of  mind,  or  averse  to  the  distinctive  fea- 
tures of  the  gospel,  to  undermine  by  sophistry  what 
cannot  be  overthrown  by  logical  reasonings  ;  to  ex- 
plain away  by  fanciful  analogies  or  preconceived 
notions,  what  by  no  well-known  law  of  literary  criti- 
cism, nor  by  any  legitimate  principle  of  hermeneu- 
tics,  can  be  consistently  denied ;  to  supersede  by 
ingenious  theories  what  must  be  admitted  either  as 
a  matter  of  historical  fact,  or  a  truth  according  to 
the  fair  and  obvious  import  of  the  phraseology  in 
which  it  is  couched. 

Hence,  on  the  one  hand,  the  diiferent  theories  of 
modern  skeptics  ;  and  on  the  other,  the  various  per- 
versions of  the  distinctive  teachings  of  the  Chris- 
tian Scriptures  :  in  either  case,  the  object  being  the 
same — to  preclude  the  admission  of  Christ's 
divinity,  and  the  necessity  of  self-renouncing  be- 
lief in  his  atoning  sacrifice :  thus  divesting  Chris- 
tianity of  its  essential  character  as  a  remedial  sys- 
tem for  fallen  man. 

Nevertheless,  the  Christian  doctrines  are  but  the 
exponents  of  the  leading  facts  of  the  New  Testa- 


128        THE    RESURRECTION    OF    JEBUS    CHRIST. 

meiit.  To  this  day,  we  should  have  had  no  knowl- 
edge of  the  doctrines,  had  not  the  events  recorded 
by  the  Evangelists  actually  taken  place,  and  thus 
passed  into  history ;  and  as  Ave  cannot  reject  the 
facts  without  virtually  discarding  all  belief  in  prob- 
able evidence,  so  we  cannot  pervert  or  raodify  the 
teachings  of  these  facts — so  as  to  bring  these 
teachings  into  seeming  agreement  with  either  our 
intellectual  preconcej^tions,  or  the  affinities  of  self- 
will,  without  violating  the  analogy  of  the  scriptural 
records. 

Despite  the  "  Development  Theory,"  the  Myth- 
ical, and  the  more  recent  theory  of  Sensualism 
— so  thinly  veiled  under  the  garb  of  Pantheism, 
— as  we  stand  by  the  vacant  sepulchre  in  the  gar- 
den, and  look  back  from  the  hour  that  the  "  great 
stone"  was  rolled  against  its  door  to  the  day  when 
coming  from  Nazareth  of  Galilee  "  Jesus  was  bap- 
tized of  John  in  Jordan,"  we  still  have  "the  wit- 
ness within"  that  we  are  not  surrendering  our 
mind  to  the  pencilings  of  fancy,  nor  to  the  con- 
clusions of  philosophy. 

Imagination  cannot  sketch,  nor  reason  fathom, 
what  the  human  mind,  unless  supernaturally  illu- 
mined, could  never  have  conceived.  In  vain  shall 
we  search  amid  the  galleries  of  art,  or  the  dis- 
coveries of  science ;  amid  the  tomes  of  human 
erudition,  the  mysteries  of  the  Oracles,  the  niches 
of  the  Pantheon,  or  even  the  archives  of  God's 
ancient  people  for  the  requisite  material  to  con- 


RELATION    TO    CHRISTIAN    DOCTRINE.  129 

struct  the  life  of  Jesus ;  and  mucli  less  for  the 
original  of  a  person  who  embodied  in  himself, 
without  inconsistency,  or  defect,  both  precept  and 
example. 

See  ;  the  form  is  visible ;  the  utterance  distinct ; 
the  action  natural ;  the  expression  life-like,  man- 
like, God-like. 

It  is  "  the  Son  of  man  :"  it  is  "  the  Son  of  God  :" 
full  of  grace  and  truth  :  in  the  sublimity  of  his 
virtue  himself  a  greater  miracle  than  any  he 
wrought ;  who,  so  far  from  bearing  any  impression 
of  the  age  and  country  in  which  he  appeared,  was 
more  distinguished  from  his  countrymen  than  the 
Jew  from  the  Gentile ;  to  whom  Moses,  the 
greatest  of  the  prophets,  bore  no  higher  relation 
than  that  of  servant  to  a  Son  ;*  to  Avhom  the  angels 
are  inferior,  and  whom  they  are  charged  to  wor- 
ship ;f  whose  advent  was  announced  so  far  back  as 
^'  man's  fall ;"  who  was  pointed  out  by  Moses  him- 
self, and  with  gradually  increasing  distinctness  by 
all  succeeding  prophets,  as  the  coming  Messiah; 
who  was  the  hero  of  both  the  Patriarchal  and 
Levitical  dispensation  ;  and  constitutes  at  once  the 
perpetual  theme  and  necessary  key-stone  of  the 
Christian  dispensation  ;  whose  conception  and  birth- 
place, whose  works  and  virtues,  whose  sufferings 
and  death  answer  with  singular  minuteness  to  a 
long  train  of  prophetic  intimations ;  whose  character 
and  actions,  moreover,  accord  with  whatever  may  be 

*-  Heb.  iii.  5,  6.  f  lb.  i.  5,  6. 


130         THE    KESURRECTION    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 

our  abstract  conceptions  of  infinite  purity  and  love. 
There  is  nothing  clear,  no  approach  to  clefinitenessin 
our  conceptions  of  God  except  as  we  gaze  on  the 
face  of  Jesus  Christ ;  and  hence  the  world  never 
had  any  conceptions  worthy  of  the  great  God  until 
Christ  appeared  :  "  the  brightness  of  the  Father's 
glory  and  the  express  image  of  his  person." 

Aside  from  all  other  considerations,  and  not  ad- 
mitting of  any  reasonable  explanation  save  on 
grounds  rather  more  scientific  than  any  skeptical 
theory  that  has  as  yet  been  advanced  : — He  who 
could  work  the  most  stupendous  miracles  in  his 
own  name,  and  in  sole  reliance  on  himself;  who 
could  predict  coming  events  not  as  if  he  had  been 
inspired,  but  as  an  omniscient  being  speaks ;  who 
announced  grander  ideas  than  had  ever  entered  the 
mind  of  either  the  greatest  men,  or  the  most  re- 
nowned sages — in  a  way  too  that  "  never  man 
spoke;"  who  exemplified  the  surpassing  purity  of  his 
principles  amid  unparalleled  temptations  and  trials 
by  a  life  of  stainless  virtue  and  self-sacrificing  love, 
must  have  been  conscious  of  power,  of  prescience, 
of  wisdom,  of  truth  and  of  holiness — such  as  no 
man  whatever  his  capacities,  his  acquirements,  his 
moral  excellence,  his  aptitudes,  or  however  keen 
his  introspection — ever  detected  in  his  own  con- 
sciousness ;  must  himself  have  been  conscious  with- 
out design,  without  vanity,  w^ithout  enthusiasm,  or 
the  possibility  of  mistake,  that,  though  a  man,  he 
was   essentially,   in    the  very   constitution  of   his 


RELATION    TO    CHRISTIAN    DOCTRINE.  131 

person,  different  from  the  sons  of  men  ;  as,  in  fact, 
historically  he  is,  in  the  works  of  his  power,  in 
the  utterances  of  his  thoughts,  in  the  acts  of  his 
life,  and  in  the  forms  of  his  consciousness  sublimely 
alone  in  the  world's  history. 

An  effect  must  have  a  cause  ;  and  if  within  the 
wide  domain  of  nature  with  its  teachings  of  his- 
tory, its  experience  of  life,  its  well-known  laws  of 
mental  development,  its  scientific  discoveries,  and 
inductions  from  facts,  we  can  find  no  cause  ade- 
quate to  the  solution  of  the  psychological  problem 
involved  in  the  constitution  of  his  person,  then,  as 
honest  truth-seekers,  we  are  bound  to  admit  the 
thought  that  in  this  solitary  instance  there  might 
have  been  a  real  union  of  divinity  with  the  human 
soul. 

If  true  to  the  immutable  principles  of  credible 
evidence ;  true  rather  to  the  inexorable  logic  of 
facts :  if  consistent  with  our  necessary  admission 
of  a,  first  cause  uncaused,  without  which  it  is  impos- 
sible to  account  for  the  phenomena  of  the  universe, 
it  follows  that  in  this  relation  we  cannot  extricate 
the  mind  from  a  serious  dilemma  without  having 
recourse  to  "  a  revealed  mystery."* 

Speculate  as  we  may :  bring  the  theories  of 
ancient  or  of  modern  skepticism  with  all  the 
boasted  lights  of  art   and  science  to  unravel  the 

*  Revealed,  because  never  before  known :  inexplicable,  because  he 
who  made  it  known  has  not  thought  proper  to  tell  us  how,  or  why 
it  is. 


132        THE    RESURRECTION    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 

enigma, — there  can  be  no  conclusion  worthy  of 
"this  noble  reason"  which  God  has  given  us  for 
higher  ends  than  to  idolize  and  immortalize  self, 
much  less  relief  from  heavy  thoughts  of  the  future 
of  our  moral  being, —  but  in  the  light  of  that  ever- 
memorable  morn  when  the  angelic  messenger  who 
had  said  to  the  virgin — "  The  Holy  Ghost  shall 
come  upon  thee,  and  the  power  of  the  Highest  shall 
overshadow  thee,  and  that  holy  thing  which  shall 
be  born  of  thee  shall  be  called  the  Son  of  God,"* 
then  proclaimed  to  the  women  who  had  come  early 
to  the  sepulchre  :  "  He  is  not  here,  for  he  is  risen 
as  he  said.     Come,  see  the  place  where   the  Lord 

iay-"t 

As  all  presumptive  arguments  in  favour  of  his 
being  able  to  verify  his  own  word,  that  the  third  day 
after  his  decease  he  would  rise  again,  would  have 
been  fatally  wanting  as  well  as  irrelevant,  had  he 
not  been  seen  to  be  singularly  different  from  all 
born  of  woman ;  and  incomparably  superior  to  any 
one  previous  to  his  advent  who  had  appeared  as  a 
prophet  sent  of  God,  so,  by  his  resurrection,  is 
all  doubt  dispelled.  "  The  Divine-human"  in  all 
the  mystery,  but  incontestable  reality  of  his  match- 
less, ineffable  personality,  stands  revealed. 

Hence  throughout  the  sacred  records,  from  first 
to  last,  all  is  in  keeping  with  this  wondrous  idea  of 
the  incarnate  Word.  Every  saying  that  fell  from 
his  lips ;    every   miracle  that  he  wrought ;  every 

*  Luke  i.  35.  f  Matt,  xxviii.  6. 


RELATION    TO    CHRISTIAN    DOCTRINE.  133 

precept  that  he  at  once  taught  and  exemplified  ; 
every  expression  that  either  irradiated  or  shaded 
his  countenance ;  every  prophecy  respecting  the 
Messias ;  every  angelic  announcement ;  every 
apostolic  doctrine  ;  every  tribute  of  2:)raise  to  him, 
whether  from  holy  men  on  earth,  or  from  "  the 
spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect ;"  from  "  the  wit- 
nesses under  the  altar,"  or  from  "the  four  and 
twenty  elders"  who  bow  before  "the  throne  ;"  every 
manifestation  of  his  glory ^  whether  to  a  Balaam 
who  saw  his  glory  afar  off — to  Peter  who  was  an 
"eye-witness  of  his  majesty" — to  Saul  when  he 
was  struck  with  blindness,  or  to  John  who  "  fell  at 
his  feet  as  dead" — all  is  in  harmony  with  his  own 
revelation  of  the  mysterious  constitution  of  his 
person,  as  well  as  with  the  prerogatives  of  his 
mediatorship  :  /  am  he  that  liveth  and  was  dead : 
and  behold^  I  am  alive  for  ever-more^  Amen  ;  and 
have  the  heys  of  hell  and  of  death.' '"^^ 

In  his  death  the  infirmity  of  that  nature  which 
he  had  taken  on  himself  was  clearly  made  known  : 
he  was  the  Son  of  Man.  In  his  resurrection  the 
high  nature  which  he  had  from  the  beginning  with 
God,  though  veiled  for  a  season  "under  the  form  of 
a  servant,"  was  illustriously  vindicated  from  the 
aspersions  of  his  enemies  :  demonstrated,  published 
and  declared  to  the  world. 

"  He  was  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with 
power  by  his  resurrection  from  the  dead  :"t  power 

*  Rev.  i.  18.  t  Rom.  i.  14. 

12 


134        THE    RESUKRECTION    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 

to  "  lead  captivity  captive,"  to  return  to  '^  the  glory 
which  he  had  with  the  Father  before  the  world 
was,"  and  according  to  his  word,  "to  send  the 
Comforter"  to  his  sorrowing  disciples:  power  to 
commission  his  disciples  "  to  go  into  all  the  world, 
and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature  ;"  to  "  con- 
vince" the  world  "of  sin,  of  righteousness,  and  of 
judgment  to  come;"  to  "gather  his  elect  from  the 
four  winds  of  heaven ;"  to  raise  the  dead  at  the 
last  day;  and  "to  judge  the  world  in  righteous- 
ness"— "whereof  God  hath  given  assurance  unto 
all  men  in  that  he  hath  raised  him  from  the  dead:"* 
power  to  separate  the  righteous  from  the  wicked  ; 
to  exalt  his  believing  followers  "  to  be  kings  and 
priests  unto  God,"  and  to  "put  all  enemies  under 
his  feet:"  power  to  be  with  his  disciples  "even 
unto  the  end  of  the  world;"  aye,  to  fulfil  his 
promise  to  all  who  believe  on  his  name,  that  where 
he  is  there  shall  they  be  also. 

Hence  it  was  that  on  his  rising  from  the  dead, 
— disprove  it  who  can  ? — a  new  ipowe.r  entered  into 
the  world's  history  ;  and  he  himself  became  a  living 
power  in  the  soul  of  every  believer. 

It  will  be  recollected  that  Jesus  spoke  of  the 
manner  of  his  decease  which  should  be  accomplished 
at  Jerusalem,  as  well  as  stated  the  time  of  his  res- 
urrection ;  and  it  is  no  less  clear  from  the  fact  of 
his  resurrection  that  he  was  the  '''  Lamh  of  God'' 
than  "the  Son  of  God." 

*  Acts  xvii.  31. 


RELATION    TU    CHRISTIAX    DOCTRINE.  135 

Leave  out  of  view  the  wondrous  constitution  of 
his  person  as  developed  in  the  history  of  his  life, 
and  attested  by  the  fact  of  his  coming  to  life 
again  in  accordance  with  his  own  word  ;  and  there 
is  no  more  significancy  in  his  death  than  in  that  of 
any  other  man,  as  has  been  already  intimated.  If 
a  mere  man  he^ could  not  have  atoned  for  his  own 
sins  ; — for  sins  he  must  have  had,  notwithstanding 
the  perfection  ascribed  to  him,  had  he  not  been 
born  of  a  miraculous  conception ;  and  sooner  or 
later  he  too  must  have  died  in  obedience  to  the  law 
of  mortality. 

Were  it  necessary  in  this  connection  it  might  be 
shown  that  no  view  of  Christ's  death  can  be  right 
which  is  at  variance  with  his  sinless  perfection,  and 
the  relation  which  he  sustained  to  the  Father; 
much  less  which  proceeds  on  the  supposition  that 
sin  is  no  evil,  or  that  God  is  not  a  King  as  well  as 
a  Father ;  which  denies  either  the  equity  or  the 
love  of  God :  thus  either  subverting  ethical  distinc- 
tions, or  destroying  the  force  of  law ;  while  failing 
necessarily  to  harmonize  the  outgoings  of  mercy 
with  the  demands  of  justice. 

It  might  be  shown,  moreover,  from  the  teachings 
of  the  sacred  records,  (and  independently  of  these, 
no  man's  opinion  of  the  nature  and  design  of 
Christ's  death  is  deserving  of  a  moment's  thought,) 
that  his  death  was  a  voluntary  act  of  humiliation  : 
"  he  humbled  himself,  and  became  obedient  unto 
death,  even  the  death  of  the  cross  ;"    that  he  did 


136         THE    RESURRECTION    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 

not  die  merely  to  attest  the  truth  of  his  doctrines ; 
for  the  mighty  works  to  which  he  had  previously 
referred  had  already  attested  the  divine  origin  of 
his  mission ;  and  had  this  been  the  primary  design 
of  his  death,  it  could  not  have  been  consistently 
said  of  him  any  more  than  of  the  martyr  Stephen 
or  James  that  "he  redeemed  us  witt  his  blood,"  or 
"gave  his  life  a  ransom  for  many." 

Much  less  is  it  reasonable  to  infer  from  the 
teachings  of  the  Scriptures,  that  he  died  merely  to 
set  us  an  example  of  patience  and  resignation,  or 
even  that  he  died  to  obtain  the  power  of  forgiving 
sin,  and  give  us  an  assurance  of  eternal  life :  even 
had  he  not  previously  given  sufficient  proof  of  his 
power  in  these  respects,  or  ever  exemplified  the 
passive  virtues,  it  is  evident  that  such  an  example 
might  have  been  given,  and  such  lessons  effectively 
taught  without  God's  subjecting  an  innocent  being 
to  cruel  sufferings. 

From  the  terms  employed  by  the  Evangelists  as 
descriptive  of  his  passion,  he  must  have  suffered — 
not  in  his  body,  but  in  his  mind  more  than  any 
other  man  ever  did  or  can  ;  and  yet  being  sinless 
he  had  no  grounds  for  self-reproach.  HaviDg  lived 
solely  for  others'  good,  in  his  case  there  could  have 
been  no  disturbing  thoughts  for  some  wrong  done, 
or  any  private  end  defeated.  He  too  who  had 
boldly  faced  the  traitor,  and  calmly,  s.ilently  met 
the  charges  of  the  Sanhedrim,  could  not  have  been 
afraid  to  die  ;   nor  could  he  have  been  unresigned 


RELATION    TO    CHRISTIAN    DOCTRINE.  137 

to  his  Father's  will  who  was  conscious  of  the  ulti- 
mate triumph  of  his  cause  ;  and  yet  it  would  seem 
from  the  narrative  that  "  never  was  there  sorrow 
like  unto  his  sorrow." 

Certain  it  is  that  any  one  else  would  have  shrunk 
back  from  the  scenes  through  which  he  passed.  He 
was  alone  in  this  Gethsemane  hour  of  his  myste- 
rious forebodings :  alone  in  the  final  scene  of  his 
inscrutable  agony :  in  the  phenomena  of  his  death 
just  as  separate  from  human  kind  as  he  was  in  the 
circumstances  of  his  bir,th,  or,  as  we  have  seen,  in 
the  constitution  of  his  person. 

Why  he  was  constrained  "to  tread  the  wine-press 
of  sorrow;"  or  what  the  precise  nature  of  his 
sufferings,  is  but  imperfectly  known.  The  accepted 
formula  of  the  church  that  he  died  to  atone  for  sin 
advances  us  but  a  step  beyond  the  threshold  of  in- 
quiry. In  any  point  of  view  it  is  a  great  mystery 
— a  stupendous  problem — not  to  be  resolved  by  the 
finite  mind  ;  but  most  assuredly  we  know  one  thing 
about  it— if  but  one ;  and  which  we  should  not 
have  known  had  Christ  not  risen  from  the  grave  to 
become  Ids  own  interpreter  of  his  dying  sufferings  : 
and  that  is,  that  his  death  was  not  a  mischance ; 
nor  the  inevitable  result  of  hell's  devices  against 
"the  Lord's  Anointed  ;"  but  an  unavoidable  moral 
necessity  under  God's  government:  the  appoint- 
ment of  Infinite  wisdom  and  love  ;  predetermined 
in  the  divine  councils  ;  preceded  by  a  long  series 
of  preparations,  embracing  a  great  variety  of 
12  « 


138        THE    RESURRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

agencies  ;  and  that  by  virtue  of  ''  the  propitiation 
for  sin"*  God  can  "  be  just,  and  the  justifier  of  him 
that  believeth  in  Jesus." 

"  Ought  not  Christ  to  have  suffered  these  things, 
and  to  enter  into  his  glory  ?"  said  Jesus  to  the 
desponding  disciples  the  very  same  day  of  his  res- 
urrection :  "  And  beginning  at  Moses,  and  all  the 
prophets,  he  expounded  unto  them  in  all  the  Scrip- 
tures the  things  concerning  himself.  And  said 
unto  them  :  Thus  it  is  written,  and  thus  it  behooved 
Christ  to  suffer  ;  and  to  rise  from  the  dead  the  third 
day.  And  that  repentance  and  remission  of  sins 
should  be  preached  in  his  name  among  all  nations, 
beginning  at  Jerusalem. "f 

Hence  the  atonement  lies  at  the  basis  of  the 
Christian  System  :  its  final  proof  rests  immoveably 
on  the  great  fact  of  the  Resurrection  ;  and  the 
doctrine  "  of  Justification  by  faith,"  inseparably 
associated  as  it  is  with  Christ's  resurrection,J  pro- 
claims to  dying  sinners  the  gracious  end  for 
which  he  was  raised  from  the  dead. 

Thus  ''  the  mystery  that  was  hid  for  ages"  is 
unveiled  in  the  light  of  the  resurrection  morn.  He 
who  came  forth  from  the  sepulchre  of  Joseph  of 
Arimathea,  where  his  body  was  laid  after  that  he 
•was  crucified,  is  exalted  to  be  A  prince,  and  a 
Saviour.  § 

So  thought,  so  felt  "the  chosen  witnesses,"  as  is 

*  Rom.  iii.  25,  26.  f  Luke  xxiv.  27,  46,  47". 

%  Rom.  iv.  26.  g  Acts  v.  31. 


RELATION   TO    CHRISTIAN    DOCTRINE.  139 

evident  from  the  various  references  to  the  death 
and  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ,  everywhere  scat- 
tered throughout  the  Acts  and  Epistles  of  the  sacred 
writers. 

The  resurrection  served  not  merely  to  disabuse 
their  minds  of  all  their  earth-born  conceptions  of 
the  Messiah  of  promise ;  but  to  impress  them  with 
a  profounder  sense  of  his  claims  on  their  love  and 
devotions  :  the  true  dignity — the  transcendent 
glory  of  their  blessed  Master,  notwithstanding  the 
indignities  and  ignominy  to  which  he  had  been  sub- 
jected. 

That  hour  of  darkness  which  came  over  the  in- 
nocent Sufferer  as  he  drew  nigh  his  end,  is  now  seen 
to  have  been  but  the  eclipse  of  "  the  Sun  of  right- 
eousness." 

What,  though  his  murderers  should  cast  it  into 
their  teeth  that  the  God  whom  they  adored  was  a 
crucified  malefactor  : — they  had  seen  him  after  he 
was  risen  from  the  dead ;  had  been  instructed  by 
him  in  all  things  pertaining  to  his  kingdom ;  had 
been  clothed  with  a  Divine  commission  ;  had  been 
assured  by  him  who  had  given  them  incontestable 
evidence  of  his  ability  to  keep  his  word  that  he  had 
gone  "  to  prepare  a  place  for  them  in  his  Father's 
mansions  ;"  and  looking  back  on  the  teachings  of 
his  entire  history,  and  remembering  at  once  his 
example  and  his  promise, — oh  with  what  meek- 
ness do  they  receive  the  taunts  and  jeers  of  their 
blinded   enemies  !   with  what  sincerity   of  convic- 


140         THE    RESURRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

tion  do  they  exclaim,  not  only  in  the  face  of 
ridicule  and  contempt,  but  of  death  in  its 
direst  forms:  "  We  count  all  things  but  loss  for  the 
excellency  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus  our 
Lordr' 

So  may  we.  Though  we  can  but  read  and  pon- 
der the  sacred  narratives,  we  know  that  the  resur- 
rection of  Jesus  is  attested  by  historical  and  moral 
evidence  no  less  conclusive  than  ocular  demonstra- 
tion. We  feel  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  annals 
of  our  race  ;  nothing  in  all  history  worthy  of  cre- 
dence, if  it  be  not  a  fact  that  Christ  rose  from  the 
dead. 

Despite  therefore  the  sneers  of  a  godless  world, 
the  rationalism  of  schools,  or  the  malign  sophistry, 
the  brazen  effrontery,  the  debasing  insinuations  of 
modern  sensualism,  the  humiliation  of  Jesus  need 
be  no  rock  of  offence  to  us.  We  have  nothing  to 
dread  but  the  suggestions  of  that  "evil  heart" 
which  rendered  the  disciples  even  when  they  "  saw 
the  Lord,"  so  "slow  to  believe;"  and  which  now 
blinds  so  many  minds  lest  they  should  behold  "  the 
King  in  his  glory." 

All  is  clear  and  bright — resplendently  glorious 
about  the  man  Christ  Jesus,  if  we  but  turn  our  eye 
from  the  garden  of  Gethsemane  to  the  garden  in 
which  there  was  a  sepulchre ;  from  the  place  of 
skulls  to  yonder  mountain  in  Galilee  ;*  from  Gol- 
gotha to  Bethany. t 

*  Matt,  xxviii.  16-18.  f  Luke  xxiv.  50. 


RELATION    TO    CHRISTIAN    DOCTRINE.  141 

Lo !  the  scandal  of  the  cross  has  been  ^wiped 
away !  We  can  now  worship  Him  even  at  the 
foot  of  the  cross.  When  his  soul  seems  to  sink 
and  die  within  him  under  the  inconceivable  pres- 
sure of  his  heavy  burden  ;  when  he  cries  out  as  if 
in  agony,  of  his  conscious  abandonment  by  both  God 
and  man — even  then, — oh  stupendous  and  blessed 
paradox  ! — and  never  so  humbly  as  then — shall  we 
look  up  to  him  as  the  Lord  our  God  whom 
principalities  and  powers  obey  and  worship ;  who 
left  "the  glory  which  he  had  with  the  Father  be- 
fore the  world  was,"  and  "became  flesh,"  and 
shed  his  blood  "a  ransom  for  many ;"  "  who  for 
the  jo^  that  was  set  before  him  in  bringing  many 
sons  unto  glory  endured  the  cross,  despising  the 
shame.'' 

It  became  Him  therefore  to  say  ; — and  no  one 
but  he  could  have  so  affirmed  with  all  the  solemnity 
of  actual  prescience ; — "  He  that  believeth  in  me 
shall  never  die.'' 

His  resurrection  becomes  at  once  the  seal  and 
pledge  of  the  resurrection  of  his  people.  "  If 
Christ  is  risen,  so  them  also  that  sleep  in  Jesus  will 
God  bring  with  him."  The  Head  living  for  ever, 
the  members  shall  live  also.  The  first  fruits 
being  gathered  in,  the  harvest  must  follow. 

"  For  ever  blessed,  then,  be  the  God  and  Father 
of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  who,  ac- 
cording to  his  abundant  mercy  hath  begotten  us 
again   unto   a  lively   hope  by  the  resurrection  of 


142        THE    RESURRECTION    OF   JESUS    CHRIST. 

Christ  from  the  dead  to  an  inheritance  incorrupti- 
ble, undefiled,  reserved  in  heaven  for  those  who  are 
kept  bj  the  power  of  God  through  faith  unto  salva- 
tion.'' 


THE    END. 


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